Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 12, 2015 #1 Share Posted February 12, 2015 The View from New Horizons: A Full Day on Pluto-Charon This time-lapse “movie” of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was recently shot at record-setting distances with the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. The movie was made over about a week, from Jan. 25-31, 2015. It was taken as part of the mission’s second optical navigation (“OpNav”) campaign to better refine the locations of Pluto and Charon in preparation for the spacecraft’s close encounter with the small planet and its five moons on July 14, 2015.This video was created from two animated gifs and both have been looped five times.Credit: NASA/APL/Southwest Research InstituteSource: NASA 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted February 12, 2015 #2 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Sure looks like new Horizon is approacing from either way above or way below Pluto, judging by Charon's Orbit... I know that Pluto's orbit is skewed from the ecliptic, but this surprised me a bit... Or is Charon's orbit a polar one?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 13, 2015 Author #3 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Sure looks like new Horizon is approacing from either way above or way below Pluto, judging by Charon's Orbit... New Horizons is approaching pretty much along the ecliptic, it is the axial alignment of Pluto that is odd. Pluto's axial alignment is around 119o wrt the ecliptic so, rather like Uranus, it orbits "on it's side". Or is Charon's orbit a polar one?... No, it looks that way because of the axial alignment. Pluto and Charon are mutually tidally locked (one side of Pluto always faces Charon and ons side of Charon always faces Pluto). This would not be possible with a polar orbit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+joc Posted February 13, 2015 #4 Share Posted February 13, 2015 (edited) New Horizons is approaching pretty much along the ecliptic, it is the axial alignment of Pluto that is odd. Pluto's axial alignment is around 119o wrt the ecliptic so, rather like Uranus, it orbits "on it's side". No, it looks that way because of the axial alignment. Pluto and Charon are mutually tidally locked (one side of Pluto always faces Charon and ons side of Charon always faces Pluto). This would not be possible with a polar orbit. So then, if we were on Pluto...on the side facing the moon in it's fullness... we would always be seeing a full moon? Man, I could dig that...for while anyway... Hey man, I'm so damn tired of looking at the full moon...I'm thinking about moving to the other side of Pluto! Yeah man, my folks have two houses...one on the full moon side and one on the 'no moon' side...just to break up the monotony..... Edited February 13, 2015 by joc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 13, 2015 Author #5 Share Posted February 13, 2015 So then, if we were on Pluto...on the side facing the moon in it's fullness... we would always be seeing a full moon? No. The moon would still show phases. Think of Earth's moon. You can never see the Earth from the lunar far side. However the Earth is not always full from the near side. The Earth shows phases (look at some Apollo pictures for confirmation). It's the same thing with Pluto & Charon except they both have a near side and a far side. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted February 13, 2015 #6 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Thanks Waspie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indiogene Posted February 22, 2015 #7 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Thanx for the info, Waspie. Pluto is too far from earth to be seen by the naked eye, same with two outer plants Uranus and Neptune, and mind you Pluto is demoted from planetary status in 2006 (I'm sure most people know this was a huge universal news event). I would need to buy a high-resolution, top-standard telescope to get better views of our planets, than the one I had as a child was able to show me the moon up-close and Venus as a tiny, rainbow-colored ball with its phases (crescent or half-quarter). Edited February 22, 2015 by Mike D boy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted February 23, 2015 Author #8 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Thanx for the info, Waspie. Pluto is too far from earth to be seen by the naked eye, same with two outer plants Uranus and Neptune With a dark sky and the right conditions Uranus can sometimes just about be seen with the naked eye. You would need a good star chart in order to find it as it would appear indistinguishable from a very dim star. From 1995 to 2006, Uranus's apparent magnitude fluctuated between +5.6 and +5.9, placing it just within the limit of naked eye visibility at +6.5. Source wikipedia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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