Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration

chandrda · 16th July 2015, 08:08

Amazingly simple and very well written for us the non-rocket scientists.

I always wanted to ask this question.

When these satellites go into space to explore different planets, how do they navigate?

1. In layman terms how does the satellite know where it is
2. How does it precisely go up to certain KMS from a planet and then take a turn etc
3. How do they avoid all the other asteroids, stars zooming around in space.

I know they are controlled from Earth, but how does Satellite itself know.

Regards

Damodar

Ninja75 · 16th July 2015, 09:07

Wow! Thank you for covering on the Pluto saga Mr.Avishar. Either my browsing on Team-BHP was just limited to reviews or this is a rare refreshing post. I'm equally amazed at the amount of feedback you got. So the New Horizons had enough BHP to fly past

. Reading your article has refreshed my Astronomical Quotient. Thank you.

Nick_Wanderlust · 16th July 2015, 09:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by avishar

Cant wait for the data to come streaming in!

Marvellous Details about it, we really enjoy reading this article. Awaiting for more!

I happened to come across FB's wall which shows the coincidence of the planet Pluto with similar to the looks of Disney's Pluto.

satan's_valet · 16th July 2015, 09:49

Avishar, Thanks for the excellent write-up. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

NASA has released a more detailed image of Pluto yesterday.. More details here.

Here is the image,

sgiitk · 16th July 2015, 10:25

What a day Pluto flyby and LHC throwing up the penta-quark! Two big events on the same day!

trumpet · 16th July 2015, 11:12

Thanks avishar!!!

I just feel as if i've been briefed from NASA itself. So much info, yet plain and simple enough to understand. I know we are into auto and tech. But if the mods allow, please update this thread.

ShankarG · 16th July 2015, 11:17

Very well written sir and made it so easy to understand to novices like us. Great

I always wanted to know one thing. In our school books and other literature / internet etc. that the all the planets and their trajectories in our solar system are in almost concentric circles i.e. follows the same way as equator. If that is the case, what lies if we travel upwards in the direction of North Pole or southwards in the direction of South Pole? Hasn't there been any NASA mission in this direction?

Also if i am Standing on North pole and another person is on south pole, do we see different set of stars/ planets? If we consider the picture shared by GTO, planets like Jupiter and Saturn are 100 times larger than earth. So ideally it should be visible in the same horizon from anywhere on the earth (on same longitude line).

roadrunner_nv · 16th July 2015, 11:21

I tuned in to this thread and in general team-bhp after a long absence of almost two weeks. For the last two weeks, my eyes were constantly monitoring the Nasa updates on the NH mission. The last few years have really been exciting for a space explorer.
Missions like the Huygens Cassini probe, Curiosity lander, Rosetta mission and the NH mission have been icing on the cake. Our own indigenous space vehicles have been really satisfying.

Let's hope that these small pieces of metal and passion go where no man has gone before and manage to interface (dreaming) of a civilization far, far away.

Brilliant post @avishar..let's keep this flame lit.

Voyager-1 · 16th July 2015, 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShankarG

I always wanted to know one thing. In our school books and other literature / internet etc. that the all the planets and their trajectories in our solar system are in almost concentric circles i.e. follows the same way as equator. If that is the case, what lies if we travel upwards in the direction of North Pole or southwards in the direction of South Pole? Hasn't there been any NASA mission in this direction?

Take a look at this video which animates the exact motion of planets around sun. All that we studied and our children continue to study today is a static or 'dinner plate' model of solar system. We tend to believe that, in 1 year, after a full rotation around the sun, the earth returns to the exact same point in the universe. But, this is not the case.

The first version of this video was approximate and went through lot of controversy, so Mr.DJSadhu came up with the second version addressing all the short comings of the first version. Some of the aspects covered in this video are, the planets take a helical path, the solar wind, the heliosphere, the angle of inclination of Sun's path with respect to the Milky way galaxy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvgaxQGPg7I

kumaranna · 16th July 2015, 14:18

Superb information. Nice to see so many people interested in Astronomy.

10 Astonishing facts New Horizons probe reproduced from Guardian below:

• New Horizons clocked the fastest launch ever recorded when it blasted off in January 2006, exceeding 36,000 miles per hour. The spacecraft passed the Moon after just nine hours and reached Jupiter the following year. It took just three minutes to cross the diameter of Pluto.

• The first images beamed back show that, at 2,370km (1,473 miles) in diameter, Pluto is slightly larger than previously believed. This makes it undisputedly the largest dwarf planet in the solar system. For the past decade astronomers had been undecided about whether this title belonged to Pluto or Eris, another planetary object beyond Neptune, although Eris still has a bigger mass. The extra volume means that Pluto must be less dense than thought, meaning it probably contains more ice beneath the surface.

• Sensors on New Horizons have detected a thin nitrogen atmosphere extending far out into space, and the surface colouring suggests it is a patchwork of different concentrations of frozen methane and nitrogen. These probably sublime into the atmosphere when the planet is closer to the sun and drift back to the ground as snowfall during colder periods.

• Nasa mission scientists have started giving unofficial names to some of the features. A dark patch near the south pole, initially called the whale, is being referred to as Cthulhu, after the octopus-dragon hybrid deity featured in one of HP Lovecraft’s stories. Other patches have been named Meng-p’o, after the Buddhist goddess of forgetfulness, and Balrog – a menacing creature featured in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. For the names to become official, though, they would need to be approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

• The mission is now speeding onwards into the Kuiper belt where it will examine one or two of the ancient icy objects in the vast region. Potential Kuiper belt objects that it might visit include Quaoar, Eris, Makemake, Haumea and Sedna. In coming months, scientists will decide the spacecraft’s next flyby target and send signals from Earth to New Horizons to thrust its rockets to tweak its trajectory.

• Most spacecraft depend on solar energy to power their on-board systems, but at 4bn miles from the sun, the faint light reaching a spacecraft at Pluto makes this impractical. Instead, the mission is powered by nuclear fuel – aptly, plutonium – that gives off heat as it decays. The fuel is designed to last until the late 2020s or even beyond.

• Pluto was downgraded to a “dwarf planet” just months after the launch of New Horizons, following a vote by astronomers at the IAU to change the definition of the word “planet”. The flyby has resurrected the debate, however, and Charles Bolden, Nasa’s chief administrator, said he hoped the official classification would be reconsidered. “I call it a planet, but I’m not the rule maker,” he said.

• New Horizons has spent much of its journey in hibernation mode, but it made some closeup observations of Jupiter and its moons when it completed a slingshot flyby of the planet in 2007. These included a time-lapse video of a volcanic eruption on Jupiter’s moon Io, the first detailed recording of a volcanic event outside Earth.

• When New Horizons was planned, astronomers thought it would just be observing Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. Seven months before launch, two other moons, Nix and Hydra, were discovered and then, once the mission was under way, astronomers spotted two more – Styx and Kerberos – increasing the number of objects that the spacecraft would be able to observe and need to avoid colliding with.

• The mission is carrying the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. Before dying in 1997, he requested that his ashes be sent to space. Nasa obliged, affixing a small container with his remains to the inside upper deck of the probe. It bears the inscription: “Interred herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system’s ‘third zone’, Adelle and Muron’s boy, Patricia’s husband, Annette and Alden’s father, astronomer, teacher, punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997).”

shipnil · 16th July 2015, 14:56

Avishar, it is really wonderful to read so much information put in such a beautiful and easy to understand way. Please keep it coming. Thank you very much!

anshuman_v · 16th July 2015, 15:52

Avishar, thank you. This is one of the reasons why I think all of us like Team BHP. We always find amazingly informative articles, not just about cars and the likes.

Interestingly, I dont see a button for 'Thanks' on this thread at all. Is this on purpose, given that it is not in the more regular test-drive kind of forum?

In any case, many thanks to you again, Avishar!

recshenoy · 16th July 2015, 19:30

Please have a look at interactive webpage that shows how big is our solar system. As you scroll, you will learn more about solar system.

http://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/20...ive/index.html

Happy scrolling

Rubbertramps · 16th July 2015, 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voyager-1

Take a look at this video which animates the exact motion of planets around sun. All that we studied and our children continue to study today is a static or 'dinner plate' model of solar system. We tend to believe that, in 1 year, after a full rotation around the sun, the earth returns to the exact same point in the universe. But, this is not the case.

The first version of this video was approximate and went through lot of controversy, so Mr.DJSadhu came up with the second version addressing all the short comings of the first version. Some of the aspects covered in this video are, the planets take a helical path, the solar wind, the heliosphere, the angle of inclination of Sun's path with respect to the Milky way galaxy.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=mvgaxQGPg7I

Yes. If i am not wrong everything is in motion. Earth's motion around the sun, Suns revolution in its orbit, The solar systems revolution around the core of the galaxy and galaxy's revolution being drawn to and fro some other galaxy's gravity. Not sure what is beyond that. But its something outstanding.

stanjohn123 · 16th July 2015, 23:24

Great Thread. I got a silly doubt , how do they control the New Horizons to go exactly to a specific planet from such a far distance ?

How does it slingshoot itself from one planet to another with utmost precision ?

16th July 2015, 08:08	#31
chandrda BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: London Posts: 621 Thanked: 1,010 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Amazingly simple and very well written for us the non-rocket scientists. I always wanted to ask this question. When these satellites go into space to explore different planets, how do they navigate? 1. In layman terms how does the satellite know where it is 2. How does it precisely go up to certain KMS from a planet and then take a turn etc 3. How do they avoid all the other asteroids, stars zooming around in space. I know they are controlled from Earth, but how does Satellite itself know. Regards Damodar
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 09:07	#32
Ninja75 Newbie Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: bangalore Posts: 10 Thanked: 2 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Wow! Thank you for covering on the Pluto saga Mr.Avishar. Either my browsing on Team-BHP was just limited to reviews or this is a rare refreshing post. I'm equally amazed at the amount of feedback you got. So the New Horizons had enough BHP to fly past . Reading your article has refreshed my Astronomical Quotient. Thank you.
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 09:49	#34
satan's_valet BHPian Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: TN09/KA04 Posts: 320 Thanked: 190 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Avishar, Thanks for the excellent write-up. Thoroughly enjoyed it. NASA has released a more detailed image of Pluto yesterday.. More details here. Here is the image, Attached Images
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 10:25	#35
sgiitk BANNED Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Gurugram Posts: 7,969 Thanked: 4,788 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration What a day Pluto flyby and LHC throwing up the penta-quark! Two big events on the same day!
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 11:12	#36
trumpet BHPian Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Chennai Posts: 92 Thanked: 78 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Thanks avishar!!! I just feel as if i've been briefed from NASA itself. So much info, yet plain and simple enough to understand. I know we are into auto and tech. But if the mods allow, please update this thread.
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 11:17	#37
ShankarG BHPian Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Northampton Posts: 86 Thanked: 158 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Very well written sir and made it so easy to understand to novices like us. Great I always wanted to know one thing. In our school books and other literature / internet etc. that the all the planets and their trajectories in our solar system are in almost concentric circles i.e. follows the same way as equator. If that is the case, what lies if we travel upwards in the direction of North Pole or southwards in the direction of South Pole? Hasn't there been any NASA mission in this direction? Also if i am Standing on North pole and another person is on south pole, do we see different set of stars/ planets? If we consider the picture shared by GTO, planets like Jupiter and Saturn are 100 times larger than earth. So ideally it should be visible in the same horizon from anywhere on the earth (on same longitude line).
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 11:21	#38
roadrunner_nv BHPian Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Pune Posts: 176 Thanked: 628 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration I tuned in to this thread and in general team-bhp after a long absence of almost two weeks. For the last two weeks, my eyes were constantly monitoring the Nasa updates on the NH mission. The last few years have really been exciting for a space explorer. Missions like the Huygens Cassini probe, Curiosity lander, Rosetta mission and the NH mission have been icing on the cake. Our own indigenous space vehicles have been really satisfying. Let's hope that these small pieces of metal and passion go where no man has gone before and manage to interface (dreaming) of a civilization far, far away. Brilliant post @avishar..let's keep this flame lit.
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 14:18	#40
kumaranna Newbie Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Chennai Posts: 13 Thanked: 9 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Superb information. Nice to see so many people interested in Astronomy. 10 Astonishing facts New Horizons probe reproduced from Guardian below: • New Horizons clocked the fastest launch ever recorded when it blasted off in January 2006, exceeding 36,000 miles per hour. The spacecraft passed the Moon after just nine hours and reached Jupiter the following year. It took just three minutes to cross the diameter of Pluto. • The first images beamed back show that, at 2,370km (1,473 miles) in diameter, Pluto is slightly larger than previously believed. This makes it undisputedly the largest dwarf planet in the solar system. For the past decade astronomers had been undecided about whether this title belonged to Pluto or Eris, another planetary object beyond Neptune, although Eris still has a bigger mass. The extra volume means that Pluto must be less dense than thought, meaning it probably contains more ice beneath the surface. • Sensors on New Horizons have detected a thin nitrogen atmosphere extending far out into space, and the surface colouring suggests it is a patchwork of different concentrations of frozen methane and nitrogen. These probably sublime into the atmosphere when the planet is closer to the sun and drift back to the ground as snowfall during colder periods. • Nasa mission scientists have started giving unofficial names to some of the features. A dark patch near the south pole, initially called the whale, is being referred to as Cthulhu, after the octopus-dragon hybrid deity featured in one of HP Lovecraft’s stories. Other patches have been named Meng-p’o, after the Buddhist goddess of forgetfulness, and Balrog – a menacing creature featured in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. For the names to become official, though, they would need to be approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). • The mission is now speeding onwards into the Kuiper belt where it will examine one or two of the ancient icy objects in the vast region. Potential Kuiper belt objects that it might visit include Quaoar, Eris, Makemake, Haumea and Sedna. In coming months, scientists will decide the spacecraft’s next flyby target and send signals from Earth to New Horizons to thrust its rockets to tweak its trajectory. • Most spacecraft depend on solar energy to power their on-board systems, but at 4bn miles from the sun, the faint light reaching a spacecraft at Pluto makes this impractical. Instead, the mission is powered by nuclear fuel – aptly, plutonium – that gives off heat as it decays. The fuel is designed to last until the late 2020s or even beyond. • Pluto was downgraded to a “dwarf planet” just months after the launch of New Horizons, following a vote by astronomers at the IAU to change the definition of the word “planet”. The flyby has resurrected the debate, however, and Charles Bolden, Nasa’s chief administrator, said he hoped the official classification would be reconsidered. “I call it a planet, but I’m not the rule maker,” he said. • New Horizons has spent much of its journey in hibernation mode, but it made some closeup observations of Jupiter and its moons when it completed a slingshot flyby of the planet in 2007. These included a time-lapse video of a volcanic eruption on Jupiter’s moon Io, the first detailed recording of a volcanic event outside Earth. • When New Horizons was planned, astronomers thought it would just be observing Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. Seven months before launch, two other moons, Nix and Hydra, were discovered and then, once the mission was under way, astronomers spotted two more – Styx and Kerberos – increasing the number of objects that the spacecraft would be able to observe and need to avoid colliding with. • The mission is carrying the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930. Before dying in 1997, he requested that his ashes be sent to space. Nasa obliged, affixing a small container with his remains to the inside upper deck of the probe. It bears the inscription: “Interred herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system’s ‘third zone’, Adelle and Muron’s boy, Patricia’s husband, Annette and Alden’s father, astronomer, teacher, punster, and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906-1997).” Last edited by Gannu_1 : 16th July 2015 at 15:27. Reason: Formatting and spacing = improves readability.
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 14:56	#41
shipnil BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Pune Posts: 999 Thanked: 665 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Avishar, it is really wonderful to read so much information put in such a beautiful and easy to understand way. Please keep it coming. Thank you very much!
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 15:52	#42
anshuman_v BHPian Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: India Posts: 234 Thanked: 499 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Avishar, thank you. This is one of the reasons why I think all of us like Team BHP. We always find amazingly informative articles, not just about cars and the likes. Interestingly, I dont see a button for 'Thanks' on this thread at all. Is this on purpose, given that it is not in the more regular test-drive kind of forum? In any case, many thanks to you again, Avishar!
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 19:30	#43
recshenoy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Mangalore / Bangalore Posts: 1,128 Thanked: 254 Times	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Please have a look at interactive webpage that shows how big is our solar system. As you scroll, you will learn more about solar system. http://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/20...ive/index.html Happy scrolling
	() Thanks

16th July 2015, 23:24	#45
stanjohn123 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: TN 75 Posts: 1,345 Thanked: 1,798 Times View My Garage	Re: Pluto, at last! A historic day for space exploration Great Thread. I got a silly doubt , how do they control the New Horizons to go exactly to a specific planet from such a far distance ? How does it slingshoot itself from one planet to another with utmost precision ?
	() Thanks