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New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

nytimes.com

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Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#71

Post by 8bitsrule »

ddingus wrote: post #47
Rapzid wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you just don't like taxes? I'm not sure what this has to do specifically with space? Nobody personally signs off on everything their tax dollars are spent on.

Nor can they. The cost of that would exceed the potential benefits.

Unless of course there was a website you could log into and pick the top-10 things you want your tax dollars spent on. And an accompanying Law directing that x-percent (>60) of your (unmanipulated) choices be apportioned accordingly to the programs you choose.

The cost of that would be relatively close to nil (except for those who'd rather you see you with no choice at all).

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#72

Post by 8bitsrule »

trentnix wrote: post #23
RA_Fisher wrote: post #8

Seems like a good time to reflect on the work: "Whitey on the Moon" https://youtu.be/goh2x_G0ct4 It'd be one thing if this was private money, instead it comes out of the pocketbooks of those suffering. That's rarely acknowledged.

Does this guy know how to party or what?

Hard to see, I know, but there actually are people who can't afford to party.

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#73

Post by sandworm101 »

adrianN wrote: post #49
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #48

Not sure why it wasn't more prominent, but for anyone else like that was wondering, "reaches" "zips by" and the other adjectives are indicating a distance of 2,200 miles. As a computer vision/imaging person, that's a pretty far look for a 75mm (~3 inch) mirror. It's like trying to take a picture of the Empire State building in NYC from Las Vegas with a tripod telescope.

At least there is no pesky atmosphere in the way.

Wont know that until the pics are in. A thin layer of gas, an atmosphere, is a possibility. Pluto had bit of one.

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#74

Post by garmaine »

FlyMoreRockets wrote: post #43
garmaine wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which are more valuable than metals.

Certainly the ices. No need to go so far out for that though. Bennu likely has a fair bit of water as hydrates and there is a fair bit of water ice in Saturn's rings.

Don't be inner-solar-system-centric :) Once the frontier has been pushed back to the outer solar system, volatile KBO and Oort Cloud objects become the new frontier. We can imagine a distant future where humanity planet-hops from object to object, transforming these volatile rocks into vibrant cities each with their own culture.

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#75

Post by rossdavidh »

rmdashrfstar wrote: post #56

I’ve been working a side project to build a more mobile friendly and scroll friendly version of NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day at http://lookupat.space The most recent update hopefully makes it a lot more useable with including both attribution of the work and an explanation of what the picture is about. As always, there is a link to the original page, and I plan on adding sorting features soon. I hope this help…

Awesome page! Any chance it could have a "click here for the next page" version? Autoload of new content messes with my mouse/browser/head in ways I don't like. But, otherwise great site!

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#76

Post by Agathos »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #53
nwallin wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LORRI has a 8" primary mirror, not 3. Ralph has a 75mm mirror, but that's the secondary telescope; it does multispectral photography (6 bands) and infrared spectrometry. Even with such a small primary mirror, New Horizons has a number of advantages. First, Ultima Thule is larger than Manhattan. Not exactly large, but certainly bigger than the Empire State Building. Second, the mount is incredibly stable. There are ba…

Ah, didn't know the LORRI was the primary and not the Ralph, thanks. So when do you think we'll see the LORRI images of Ultima Thule? My point remains though, and it was just a general metaphor about how astounding the stuff they are trying to do is from an imaging perspective.

Emily Lakdawalla wrote a great timeline here. http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/what-to...

The best shots won't be for a while, but hopefully the team received some informative images today or tonight and will be able to share them at tomorrow's press conference. As she notes, there is a chance that the first downloads will miss Ultima Thule entirely. The encounter was just that difficult.

As for LORRI and Ralph, can't we call them both "primary?" Only Ralph produces color images, so most color shots of Pluto are Ralph's (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/639/the-frozen-canyon...).

LORRI has higher resolution, which is why some of the most stunning shots of Pluto are black and white (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/652/plutos-majestic-m...).

Some images were produced by "painting" Ralph's colors onto LORRI's high resolution features (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/699/pluto-dazzles-in-...).

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#77

Post by bpicolo »

cmurf wrote: post #58

This article says it will take ~20 months to transmit the image data; by September 2020. https://www.foxnews.com/science/nasa-spacecraft-captures-ima...

That’s for all of it. I’d imagine we start getting pieces faster than that. Latency is 6 hours, speed is roughly a kilobit?

Re: New Horizons Reaches Ultima Thule

#79

Post by foobarbazetc »

wazoox wrote: post #41

"Thule" was named by the Greek navigator Pytheas from Massalia around 330 BC. Historians think it refers maybe to the Faeroe islands, Greenland, or more probably Iceland. From this point the name stuck to refer as the farthest place in the North, some cold unknown. In medieval times, "Thule" being Iceland, "Ultima Thule" referred to Greenland.

Actually...

https://www.newsweek.com/nasa-named-its-next-new-horizons-ta...

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