Pluto probe launch Tuesday night

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Airconvent
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Re: Pluto probe launch Tuesday night

Post by Airconvent »

Have to wait till Tuesday. I read the data transfer rate is so slow, it will take 16 months to transfer the entire expected data package back to earth! What we will be seeing are actually 600 pixel images of Pluto in "full frame" instead! :)
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Airconvent
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Re: Pluto probe launch Tuesday night

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Pluto is in close encounter mode which means comms blackout while it does its thing!
It won't be till 9am tomorrow night before NASA will receive a status message to report if all tasks accomplished successfully. Thereafter a few hours later we will probably be able to see a high definition photo of Pluto at 10K miles away!

Here is the discussion on Pluto...
http://www.space.com/19195-night-sky-pl ... casts.html

Image taken at 700K km from Pluto (vs closest point of approach of 10K Km)
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Re: Pluto probe launch Tuesday night

Post by starfinder »

Finally, New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto (at 12,500km) has taken place this evening (Tues 14 July 2015)! I watched the live coverage of the closest approach commemoration on NASA TV via UStream just now, with closest approach taking place at 1149UTC (7.49pm Singapore time).

This has been truly historic! A big thanks to NASA, and thank you to the US of A!

For me, it marks the end of a wait of over 9 1/2 years since watching its launch live on 19 January 2006 at 1900 UTC (3am Singapore time on 20 January 2006).

Pluto looks absolutely fabulous! Now we'll have to wait for the higher resolution and truer colour images to be downloaded from the space probe and made available to the public.

And to mark this occasion, I decided to image Pluto from planet Earth. I took this image just now from my room window in Singapore city at 10.40pm (1440 UTC) on 14 July 2015, which was during New Horizons' fly-by of Pluto. Technically, New Horizons would be in the field of view as it was at that moment not behind either Pluto or Charon. Telescope used was a Meade LX-90 8" SCT. Canon EOS60D dSLR, ISO1600, 15s. For the record, Pluto was then at RA 18h 59m 15s Dec -20d 45' 25" in Sagittarius at mag +14.1.

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Re: Pluto probe launch Tuesday night

Post by byang »

And what a beautiful heart she has!
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Airconvent
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Re: Pluto probe launch Tuesday night

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It is pretty amazing an object no bigger than the size of the US can be seen 5 billion km away by telescopes with small apertures!
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