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New Horizons, Only 100 days from Pluto.

Laurie61

By Laurie61
in The Astro Lounge

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

Posted
Posted

I suppose it's because I'm a botanist. Plants get reclassified over and over again. DNA taxonomy has caused some massive shake-ups and the whole classification has changed in huge ways.

Ultimately a classification is about understanding things better, and while I can see the strong cultural; reasons for Pluto being a planet the dwarf-planet classification tells us a very different story about the huge complexity of the solar system than the simple picture I learnt as a kid.

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DRT

DRT

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I don't think we can call Pluto a planet purely out of sentimental reasoning, particularly given the scientific nature of the topic. I think it is more appropriate to challenge the classification. Have all the "true" planets really cleared their orbits? What does clear actually mean? How wide is the motorway they each patrol and is that width relative to their size or their distance from the Sun. How do we know that there are no car sized objects going around the Sun in the same orbit and at the same speed as Earth, or Mars or any other planet? We just don't know. How close are the orbits of Pluto and the other minor planets? are they really in the same orbit? Could one of them possibly have cleared all of the others given the immense size of that orbit?

That all seems quite subjective to me and is almost impossible to measure.

I think we need a new definition. One that can actually be measured.

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astro mick

astro mick

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I don't think we can call Pluto a planet purely out of sentimental reasoning, particularly given the scientific nature of the topic. I think it is more appropriate to challenge the classification. Have all the "true" planets really cleared their orbits? What does clear actually mean? How wide is the motorway they each patrol and is that width relative to their size or their distance from the Sun. How do we know that there are no car sized objects going around the Sun in the same orbit and at the same speed as Earth, or Mars or any other planet? We just don't know. How close are the orbits of Pluto and the other minor planets? are they really in the same orbit? Could one of them possibly have cleared all of the others given the immense size of that orbit?

 

That all seems quite subjective to me and is almost impossible to measure.

 

I think we need a new definition. One that can actually be measured.

That's fair enough Derek,and there is a lot of valid reasoning behind your reply.

I agree we cant call every object a Planet,indeed if it were size alone,is,nt one of Jupiters moons bigger than the planet Mercury?

I just feel this one exception could have been allowed,but the Astro bodies that be, have decided not

Mick.

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DRT

DRT

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That's fair enough Derek,and there is a lot of valid reasoning behind your reply.

I agree we cant call every object a Planet,indeed if it were size alone,is,nt one of Jupiters moons bigger than the planet Mercury?

I just feel this one exception could have been allowed,but the Astro bodies that be, have decided not

Mick.

For the record, Mick - Pluto is a planet in my book :wink:

That is mostly down to the distance from the Sun and the resultant size of the orbit. I doubt very much that any planet is alone in it's orbit, but can see very easily why the farther out you go the more likely it is that multiple observable objects would exist on the same flightpath.

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Naf

Naf

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Now with 7 days to go maybe we should have a poll! Do you think Pluto should be reinstated as a Planet or should it stay a Dwarf Planet along with the others?, clear skies. :grin: :grin:

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Piero

Piero

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I have always been a fan of Pluto, possibly because we did not have any data about it and this covered it with curtain of mystery and loneliness. Thinking about this cold distant planet almost made me when I was a child and wanted to know more and more about. However I can see that there is a scientifick and valid reason for calling Pluto a dwarf planet or a tno. What about Ceres, Sedna and many others that we still don't know. Technically either we call a planet every thing rotating around the sun or we make some distinction.

Anyway this is taxonomy. I grew up with the feeling and knowledge that Pluto was a planet. Therefore to me it is seen as one of them.

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RLWP

RLWP

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It does seem to be changing appearance a lot as New Horizons* gets nearer. Fascinating

Richard

*anyone else associate 'new horizons' with 'electric shirt collar'?

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Stub Mandrel

Stub Mandrel

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TBH I really don't care if Pluto is a planet or no - it doesn't ;-) I am fascinated by the ever improving images.

The closest approach will be 500 times closer than the July 5 photo, I am hoping for some amazing images!

I picked up the 'Cambridge Photographic Atlas of the Planets' from 1982 in a bookshop last Friday (with other gems) for a fiver. You only get half of Mercury and nothing beyond Saturn - not even a 'green dot'. Pre-voyager 32 getting to Uranus. It's incredible how our knowledge of the solar system has changed over thirty-odd years.

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barkis

barkis

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This report on a strange dotted line seen on Pluto I saw on Yahoo.

Not sure if anyone else reported this on SGL.

Ron.


A NASA probe sent back mystifying images of the surface of dwarf planet Pluto – then the signal cut out.

The probe sent back a strange image of a ‘dotted line’ on the surface of the planet, which scientists admit is a ‘real puzzle’.

The craft’s main computer malfunctioned shortly afterwards - but scientists have now restored contact with the probe.

The New Horizons probe is powered by a Star Trek-style ion drive – and has ‘slept’ for nine years on its journey to Pluto.

Over the next few months, New Horizons is set to unlock the secrets of Pluto, a distant, icy world which has never been seen except as a distant dot in our telescopes.

‘It’s a real puzzle – we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,’ said New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern.

‘Also puzzling is the longstanding and dramatic difference in the colors and appearance of Pluto compared to its darker and grayer moon Charon.’

On Saturday, an unknown glitch caused New Horizons to switch to a backup computer, which triggered an 81-minute break in radio communications with mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, NASA said in a status report.

The work is complicated by the 4-1/2 hours it takes to send a set of signals to the spacecraft, which is nearly 3 billion miles from Earth.

 
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DRT

DRT

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Update with map on BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33440926

And a heads-up for a Sky at Night special on Monday 20th to showcase the findings

"It is likely to take 16 months to play back every piece of science acquired over the next week."

WOW!

This is all getting to be very exciting. The article linked to claims that images from the flyby will be "pin sharp" with a resolution of better than 100m per pixel. I don't really know what that looks like but could someone who does please post a picture of the Moon that is at that sort of resolution just to get us even more excited than we already are?

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DRT

DRT

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> a resolution of better than 100m per pixel. I don't really know what that looks like

That's ten times better than I can manage when photographing the moon!

So we are talking Hubble-tastic resolution images!

Excellent :grin:

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DRT

DRT

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It's been doing better than Hubble on Pluto since May!

Indeed - I meant that we might see images of Pluto that are as sharp as Hubble can take of the Moon :wink:

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Macavity

Macavity

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I too was trying to find something re. the 100m / pixel. :)

Looks like this is the standard for "best ever" Mars mapping by Themis?

http://themis.asu.edu/news/themis-camera-yields-best-mars-map-ever

The black areas seem to lie along Pluto's equator? Was put in mind of

the dark areas on Iapetus. Maybe a feature of tidally locked systems -

Perhaps matter from Charon is raining down onto pluto or something? ;)

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