Probe nears close encounter with Jupiter

CNN.com ^ | January 19, 2007 | Reuters

[kennedy]

A spacecraft is zooming toward a close encounter with Jupiter to study its tempestuous atmosphere, ring system and four of its moons before dashing off to see distant Pluto in 2015, scientists said on Thursday.

NASA's New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever built by humans, is due to reach Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet and fifth from the sun, after a 13-month journey from Earth, flying almost half a billion miles.

Launched on January 19, 2006, it is set to make its closest pass by Jupiter on February 28, flying within 1.4 million miles.

NASA scientists said the main purpose for visiting Jupiter is to exploit the giant gas planet's gravity to slingshot New Horizons at 52,000 miles per hour toward frigid and unexplored dwarf planet Pluto, a journey that will take eight more years.

[kennedy]

If it is moving at 52,000 miles per hour when it leaves Jupiter, how is it going to spend five months studying Pluto?

[cripplecreek]

I assume they plan to put it in orbit arount pluto.

[Jaysun]

I thought Pluto was already written off as an ice ball.

[ElkGroveDan]

If it is moving at 52,000 miles per hour when it leaves Jupiter, how is it going to spend five months studying Pluto?

It's actually going to begin observations several months out, and continue observations looking back after the encounter. The actual close encounter will only take a couple of hours. Long range visual observations will assist with final course corrections, and magnetic field studies and other science efforts can begin long before the actual encounter.

Because of the energies necessary and the massive amounts of fuel involved putting the craft into orbit at that velocity would be a technological herculean task. The simple flyby is orders of magnitude cheaper.

[canuck_conservative]

Well I guess a probe headed for Jupiter is better than a probe headed for Uranus ....

[ElkGroveDan]

I thought Pluto was already written off as an ice ball.

That was merely a political vote by a bunch of self-appointed "experts" at a convention. Pluto has three moons and an atmosphere. It's still really interesting and understanding it is critical to our overall understanding of our Solar System.

[cripplecreek]

Even a flyby will give us a better look than we've ever had.

[ElkGroveDan]

Even a flyby will give us a better look than we've ever had.

Oh heck yes. This thing is a working machine and the Jupiter flyby next month will be a good dry run for the actual encounter. It can do a whole lot at once and gather a lifetime worth of data and science during those few days.

[RightWhale]

This has been followed closely on FR. There was a Live Thread for the launch. The spacecraft got beyond the moon's orbit faster than anything ever launched except maybe those bullets fired from the Atlas back in the 50s. This is a hot one.

[martin_fierro]

Space Ping!

[MikeD]

IIRC, at 150 days out LORRI (the 8-inch telescope instrument) will have better-than-Hubble quality images of Pluto.

There are some great shots of Jupiter & Io from LORRI if you go to the New Horizons web page. It's going to be an exciting few months coming up...

[dearolddad]

Well I guess a probe headed for Jupiter is better than a probe headed for Uranus ....

OOOOH!!! What you just said. Now you have gotten Barney Franks all excited.

[kennedy]

The article says, "New Horizons is due to spend five months studying Pluto and its three moons after arriving in July 2015." Given the speed it will be going, it is obvious that it cannot orbit Pluto and there is no way to slow it down.

I thought it was a reasonable question to ask how this would be done. I am sorry Defend the Second that my question offended you. (Actually, I don't give a damn, but I'm being polite). ElkGroveDan gave a simple and reasonable explanation to my question and I think him for it.

[RockinRight]

Too bad it wasn't Uranus. Then it would have been a funnier headline.

[ElkGroveDan]

Wow. What a jerk.