New Horizons Probe Awakened!

Hevelin · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 3:33 AM

The New Horizons space probe has been awakened in preparation for its Pluto encounter in 2015. Details can be found at:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...lutosdoorstep/

Solace · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 7:58 AM

Very interesting find there Hevelin, It seems 2014/15 has yielded some incredible advancements in space flight and exploration

LynxMukka · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 11:17 AM

I've been following this since it was launched back in 2006, definitely exciting now that we're almost there. (To be honest I find this more exciting than the Rosetta Probe since we get to see what the forgotten planet of Pluto looks like).

They have weekly mailing list if people are interested. Each week they cover the latest news and get an expert in who talks about a specific part of the project etc.

Solace · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 3:07 PM

Originally Posted by LynxMukka

I've been following this since it was launched back in 2006, definitely exciting now that we're almost there. (To be honest I find this more exciting than the Rosetta Probe since we get to see what the forgotten planet of Pluto looks like).

They have weekly mailing list if people are interested. Each week they cover the latest news and get an expert in who talks about a specific part of the project etc.

Do you think its shame that Pluto was reclassified as a moon?

LynxMukka · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 3:33 PM

Originally Posted by Solace

Do you think its shame that Pluto was reclassified as a moon?

Well it wasn't classified as a moon, but as a dwarf planet when they changed the definition of what a dwarf planet is. From Wikipedia: "in direct orbit of the Sun that is massive enough for its shape to be controlled by gravity, but that unlike a planet has not cleared its orbit of other objects."

(For example it crosses orbit with Neptune and some various Kuiper Belt objects I believe?)

Definitely though, before I truly understood what it meant, I figured the New Horizons probe would put the haters right.

Kains · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 3:38 PM

I dun care if they call it a pie in the sky; it's a bazillion miles away, has a whole host of spatial bodies out there we know nothing about, and in the next 7 months we going to see some close up pictures!

It's pretty exciting!

Solace · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 4:05 PM

Originally Posted by LynxMukka

Well it wasn't classified as a moon, but as a dwarf planet when they changed the definition of what a dwarf planet is. From Wikipedia: "in direct orbit of the Sun that is massive enough for its shape to be controlled by gravity, but that unlike a planet has not cleared its orbit of other objects."

(For example it crosses orbit with Neptune and some various Kuiper Belt objects I believe?)

Definitely though, before I truly understood what it meant, I figured the New Horizons probe would put the haters right.

Thanks for correcting me on that one

The New Horizons probe will definitely yield some interesting discoveries, I shall be following this closely, although I have been lacking lately in keep up to date on the latest news.

Curzon Peers · Posted Mon 08 Dec, 2014 8:41 PM

and yet they still consider it a dwarf planet and its satelite rather than a double dwarf planet despite the fact the barycenter is between Pluto and Charon.
====
I am definitely excited to see what New Horizons finds out. Regardless of what Pluto is classified as, we don't know that much about it, and all of the pictures we have are crappy, so more data and better pictures are great things to have, and it should also give us more insight into the nature of kuiper belt objects

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