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Subscribe to RSSFive years ago today, NASA launched the New Horizons probe on the fastest rocket ever to leave Earth, beginning a journey to the farthest world ever targeted by a space mission. Back then, Pluto was considered the only one of the nine planets not yet explored. Today, it's widely accepted that Pluto is part of a troop of dwarf planets. There may be several other worlds like Pluto out there on the solar system's dark, cold frontier. There may be hundreds of them. New Horizons may well shed new light on that mystery, and many others, when it passes by Pluto in 2015.
New Horizons' Twitter account is positively chirping with birthday updates today: The 9-foot-wide probe is currently about 1.85 billion miles from Earth, and more than halfway to Pluto. Along the way, the spacecraft's camera has caught sight of Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as well as the dwarf planets Makemake and Haumea. It's so close to its prescribed path that no course corrections will be required this year. The mission team is already planning the timeline for the 2015 approach, as well as an extended mission in the solar system's icy Kuiper Belt that could go all the way out to 2040.
It's no secret that Pluto is one of my favorite worlds, partly because of the controversy that's been bubbling around the dwarf planet for the past five years. I delve into that controversy in my book, "The Case for Pluto." You can easily guess where I stand on the planet-vs.-non-planet issue — but no matter where you stand, today's a great day to raise a toast to the scientists and engineers behind New Horizons. Preferably with Planet Pluto wine.
More about Pluto:
- Interactive: The new solar system
- Pluto debate is about more than one little world
- Check out msnbc.com's Pluto page
- Search for Pluto on Cosmic Log
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
Leave a Comment:
If that little probe can last all the way to 2040 the discoveries it will make of the farthest objects in the solar system will be astounding!
If it can make it to 2040, the things we will find out about probe longevity will be amazing! And they'll be very useful, too, as mankind considers trying to send a probe to the nearest star system with a little blue dot.
Hello my name is Dale. I'm 60 years old and I'm in amazment that the accomplishments to be in space.
I have a question for the Astronauts? How do you shower in space if everything floats as it does.
Can you take a bath in space, if there was room?
Do you have internet we can write to you all in space?
Thanks you.
Hi, Dale ... I'm not an astronaut, but I can give you a few pointers. Baths in space would be a little tricky. The Skylab crew did have a "shower," but the experience was more like taking an Navy shower or a sponge bath. Here's info from http://www.astronautix.com/project/skylab.htm:
1972 April 30 - .
On the International Space Station, about the best the astronauts can manage is a damp-towel sponge bath. This item discusses the sorts of things you want to know:
Cosmic Log: Don't be a space slob:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2006/10/17/4350586-dont-be-a-space-slob
As for writing to the astronauts, here's what NASA says
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/astronaut_faq.html
I think the best way to keep in touch with the astronauts is through Twitter:
http://twitter.com/nasa_astronauts
Hope this helps...
The ISS can be contacted via amateur radio.
http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-on-the-international-space-station
Hello Dale-2953640 here. Is anyone out there?
Hello Genisus here....Are you out in the great wide web?
Stupid is as stupid does.....
Widely accepted? No its not widely accepted. Many people are trying to get the IAU to reverse their vote or hold another vote. ( I am still unhappy that they waited till only 400 or so Astronomers were left to take the vote. ( See BBC for details)) Many others refuse to accept the IAU's Opinion.
Hopefully Horizon will discover evidence that trashes the IAU opinion on what a planet is and they re-store pluto.
tax money put to good use wow and we wonder why the country is broke
NASA's total budget hovers around 1% of the total national budget. The highest percentage it ever was was back in the moon race days of the 60's at around 4-5% of total budget. Please try to think critically before making asinine statements. There are many reasons for the countries fiscal problems, but I assure you that NASA has abosolutely nothing to do with them.
Bob's just mad because his welfare check bounced.
Your country is broke because you spent over $1trillion on your military in 2010.
Pluto is obviously a true planet, and not a "dwarf" anything. What is needed to truly be a planet:
Atmosphere? Check
Large enough to have rounded under its own gravity? Check.
Large enough to have captured satellites? Check.
Seasons? Check.
By what the definitions put forth for what is a planet, even Earth fails as we've not cleared our orbit of all debris.
I believe I remember reading that New Horizons will explore Pluto and perhaps another TNO object (that 2nd exploration and the 2nd object are both TBD). The article mentions an extended mission to as far out as 2040. Is New Horizons' purpose to see Pluto +1 or is there enough fuel, resources, etc. on board for the probe to travel to and explore many TNOs until ~2040?
Also, since the camera has already spotted Makemake and Haumea--even though it's a LONG way from those two "dwarf" planets--will New Horizons have the capability to scan the post-Neptunal regions of space with its camera and identify unknown TNOs (even if they're too far away for the probe to reach)?
Hi Creig!
New Horizons is limited in how much it can maneuver. Essentially, using Pluto as an anchor for a gravitational slingshot, there is a cone of potential paths that New Horizons will have for the outer Solar System. Given Pluto's relatively small mass, that cone is rather small (small angle compared to the vastness of trans-Neptunian space, and also small when compared to how much larger a cone of potential orbits we could derive from an interaction with a giant like Jupiter).
The search for new TNO's is still rather new, so NASA is waiting for new discoveries before determining the best potential path. I'm guessing (SWAG*) that that decision would be postponed until about 6 months (or so) before Pluto encounter, at which time the final trajectory to intersect Pluto will be set up.
IF we are fortunate, and more than a bit lucky, there is the potential to do a billiards-like shot, and gain another gravitational slingshot from the 2nd target to head in the direction of a third.
It all depends on what Mike Brown and colleagues find, where those TNO's are, and how massive they are (mass determining the ability to vary the slingshot).
I don't know about your question to use New Horizons to look for new TBO's - that's a great question! I'm going to ask around; if I find anything out I'll let you know.
Cheers! ~Michael (AFM*Radio / Astronomy.FM)
(*SWAG = Scientific Wild-A$$ed Guess)
May I use SWAG? It would be great for explaining things to my lady.
Thanks, Michael. Good info. (I'm not quite sure why some of that information wasn't in the article.)
While you're asking around about the possiblity of using the camera to scan for new TNOs, can you also check to see if the camera (or other probe features) have any limitations that could expire before ~2040? In other words, the probe itself is limited in how much it can maneuver, thus it'll use a slingshot(s), but do the other instruments, including the camera, require XXX amount of XXX to function? I'm just wondering if we could potentially get information from New Horizons for decades and decades, even when the fuel for maneuvering is gone--or will the probe just die? We still receive important information from the Voyager spacecrafts, could New Horizons do the same?
Can't get everything into every article, I suppose....
I couldn't get a hold of Alan Stern today (he's the New Horizons PI), but I did talk with Mike Buckley. Mike is at John Hopkins (the managing institution for New Horizons) and on the mission team.
Yes, there is that possibility, but not until AFTER Pluto encounter. Pluto is the focus of the mission, so they don't want to do anything "extra" until they have Pluto on the bag. After the Pluto flyby that is one of the things that they wish to work on. For now the mission is in minimum activity mode.
Mike didn't know. His impression is that the plutonium fuel source may not be able to output enough electricity that far down the road. My impression is that the plutonium WILL still be up to the job (based solely on the fact that the Voyager missions are still kickin' it 70's style, while running on Pu and moxie). Neither one of us know enough about the tech side, so I'll keep my eyes open to see if I can snag someone from the engineering team.
Space missions are such a crap shoot. Compare the success of the Mars Rovers (cute little over-achievers that they are), with the semi-failure of the JAXA Akatsuki mission to go into Venus orbit, to the total failure of about half the missions that have been launched to Mars. Given all that fine print, I think that it's likely that we'll see really cool data from New Horizons for decades after Pluto. (Or not; I'm keeping my fingers crossed.)
Cheers! ~Michael (AFM*Radio / Astronomy.FM)
Imagine if we put that 1 trillion into space exploration instead of the military. We could have space cities that orbit the earth and other planets. That would be a lot more interesting than blowing people up. Just a thought on the possiblities if we can ever escape our primitive need to wage war.
Five year flight so far- Geez, How many times can you watch the same in flight movie over and over and over...
Seriously, hope they find all sorts of good stuff - there is so much to learn.
Pluto should be considered a planet by the very fact that it was discovered with less than perfect means in 1930 no less! When you have to look at two pictures of the same areas of space for a year to see if anything moved, what you find should be considered a planet. After all you "planeted" your butt on a chair for a long time to find it. Think of the eye strain Clyde had.
Come on.
Pluto may not fit the mold of what the "perfect" planet should fit, but we all grew up knowing it was the 9th planet and it should stay the 9th planet, even if it is an honorary designation.
A trillion dollars is only paper. It is also only $147.06 per person on earth. Trading a little paper for information that this probe will suppy us is priceless. We Americans can't even take the family out to eat at Red Lobster for that.
I'd gladly pay my $147.06 to learn what this will tell us of Pluto and other objects on the fringe of the solar system.
What is NOT widely accepted is the notion that dwarf planets are not planets at all. Dr. Alan Stern coined the term in 1991 to indicate a third class of planets in addition to terrestrials and jovians--small objects that orbit the sun (or another star) and are large enough to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning pulled into a round shape by their own gravity, but not large enough to gravitationally dominate their orbits. He never intended for dwarf planets to not be considered planets at all.
Why can't we vote where our tax dollars are spent? Even half of them, and congress can use the other half. I vote for NASA. Some people can vote Military. Some can vote welfare. Or highway projects. Or split between 2 or 3 choices.
Let the people decide!!