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New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

pluto.jhuapl.edu

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Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#11

Post by scrumbledober »

jimijazz wrote: post #7

This is why I love HN: because I can count to have updated links to content I care for.

I've been getting most of my updates for this from /r/space personally, but I think that's the main attraction of HN for me. I don't need to curate my own list of subreddits to get links to content that interests me, because it's all (mostly) likeminded people on here that are on average interested by the same kind of stuff as me. I find more new interests on here than I ever could on reddit looking through my preconceived list of interests.

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#12

Post by ilkkao »

mbrundle wrote: post #2

I find it truly amazing that New Horizons was able to take photos of a 20 mile object whilst flying past at ~8 miles/sec - that’s an incredibly small space and time window within which to capture the images. Does anyone know how NASA manages to pilot spacecraft with this level of precision? What kind of engineering processes do you need to enable this?

In the press conference they said that the spacecraft tried to take one megapixel image of Ultima Thule one hour after this image. Interesting to see it in couple months.

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#14

Post by [deleted] »

scrumbledober wrote: post #11
jimijazz wrote: post #7

This is why I love HN: because I can count to have updated links to content I care for.

I've been getting most of my updates for this from /r/space personally, but I think that's the main attraction of HN for me. I don't need to curate my own list of subreddits to get links to content that interests me, because it's all (mostly) likeminded people on here that are on average interested by the same kind of stuff as me. I find more new interests on here than I ever could on reddit looking through my precon…

[deleted]

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#15

Post by quakeguy »

"The team says that the two spheres likely joined as early as 99 percent of the way back to the formation of the solar system, colliding no faster than two cars in a fender-bender."

Welded together by gravity, i'm really in awe seeing the, by far, weakest power so lovely at work.

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#17

Post by gibolt »

mbrundle wrote: post #2

I find it truly amazing that New Horizons was able to take photos of a 20 mile object whilst flying past at ~8 miles/sec - that’s an incredibly small space and time window within which to capture the images. Does anyone know how NASA manages to pilot spacecraft with this level of precision? What kind of engineering processes do you need to enable this?

For a more detailed summary of the amazing collaborations necessary and challenges faced, Scott Manley: https://youtu.be/ymJRlUQfPfQ

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#18

Post by high_derivative »

Whenever I see these updates, I am reminded of the three body problem trilogy and its contemplations on space exploration (the parts I enjoyed the most).

Then I get sad because things just take so incredibly long on a stellar scale, and a human life is so short.

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#19

Post by robotrout »

quakeguy wrote: post #15

"The team says that the two spheres likely joined as early as 99 percent of the way back to the formation of the solar system, colliding no faster than two cars in a fender-bender." Welded together by gravity, i'm really in awe seeing the, by far, weakest power so lovely at work.

So, two masses were close enough in relative velocity and vector, that one of them didn't careen off the other one, and instead, allowed the weakest of all known forces to bond them together as they hurtled at high velocity through space.

This object(s) seem statistically unlikely to me. I'm not saying it's artificial. That would be even more unlikely, by orders of magnitude. Just saying "Wow!".

Re: New Horizons’ first hi-res imagery of Ultima Thule

#20

Post by kylek »

skunkworker wrote: post #10

That is amazing. It reminds me of a snowman or two snowballs frozen together, except it's red not white. As seen in the combined image. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Galleries/Featured-Images/pics800wid...

Reminded me of 67p (albeit that is slightly more rubber-ducky shaped) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67P/Churyumov%E2%80%93Gerasime...
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