Posted on 07/15/2015 5:14:29 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Scientists leading NASA’s historic New Horizons mission to the Pluto system announced the first of what is certain to be a tidal wave of new discoveries, including the totally unexpected finding of young ice mountains at Pluto and crispy clear views of young fractures on its largest moon Charon, at a NASA media briefing today (July 15) at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
A treasure trove of long awaited data has begun streaming back to Mission Control at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to the mouth watering delight of researchers and NASA.
With the first ever flyby of Pluto, America completed the initial up close reconnaissance of the planets in our solar system. Pluto was the last unexplored planet, building on missions that exactly started 50 years ago in 1965 when Mariner IV flew past Mars.
“Pluto New Horizons is a true mission of exploration showing us why basic scientific research is so important,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
“The mission has had nine years to build expectations about what we would see during closest approach to Pluto and Charon. Today, we get the first sampling of the scientific treasure collected during those critical moments, and I can tell you it dramatically surpasses those high expectations.”
Today the team announced that New Horizons has already made a totally unexpected discovery showing clear evidence of ice mountains on Pluto’s surface in the bright area informally known as the ‘big heart of Pluto.’
The new close-up image released today showed an icy mountain range near the base of the heart with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface, announced John Spencer, New Horizons science team co-investigator at the media briefing.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Thanks!
I just want to know how they can transmit that data millions of miles. Most days I barely get 3 bars on my cellphone. (Seriously, how can something transmit that far?)
“I just want to know how they can transmit that data millions of miles. Most days I barely get 3 bars on my cellphone. (Seriously, how can something transmit that far?)”
For a start, scientists have discovered the optimal radio frequencies that best cut through the random background radio noise in space. I expect the digital communication protocols have a lot of data redundancy and error corrections built in. Radio waves act just like light waves, they grow weaker with distance, but don’t suddenly conk out. The important thing is using huge antennas and ultra sensitive radio receivers to capture and magnify the faint signals. Most amazing, this space probe transmitter emits only 10 watts of power, not a whole lot more power than a CB radio! By comparison, the most powerful AM radio stations in the US broadcast 50,000 watts.
What, no impact craters?
Planets are like pornography. I don’t know how to define it, but I know it when I see it, and, by golly, Pluto is a planet.
That’s what I’m talking about.
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