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On Alan Stern’s New Horizons page, he tells us that the Pluto probe has something of a milestone today: it’s 1/3 of the way to Pluto in time. In other words, it’s been 1155 days since launch on January 19, 2006, and New Horizons will pass Pluto on July 14, 2015, which will be 3463 days after launch.
Interestingly, it passed 1/3 of the distance it will travel to Pluto some time ago! The probe was moving fastest right after launch, but has since been decelerating due to gravity from the Sun (and initially from the Earth) [Note added later: This is not quite correct; I forgot initially that the probe picked up speed at Jupiter, so in fact it's been slowing down ever since then]. It’s moving more slowly now, so it takes longer to hit each distance milestone.
Alan makes a remarkable comment on that page: besides the spent booster that put the probe on its course to Pluto, there are no man-made objects within a billion miles of New Horizons. Space is empty, dark, and deep in the outer solar system. But only for a few more years… and then the little probe will pass Pluto, and have plenty of things to do and see.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Phil, the probe will never make it to Pluto. And even if it somehow manages it, we won’t be here to see what it sends back. After all, the world will be ending three years before it is scheduled to arrive at Pluto.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
@ Todd W.,
Do you have to send out them negative waves, man?
March 19th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
@IVAN3MAN
I’m just spreading the Truth. “Scientists” like Phil will likely tell you that there is nothing to worry about, but the Mayan calendar predicted that Nibiru will DESTROY the world in 2012!!!1!!one! Ignore their warning at your peril!
March 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
*chuckle* 8/10.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
@ Todd W.,
Hey, chill out, dude! Like, er… drink some wine, eat a piece of cheese, absorb a few rays…
March 19th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I’ve heard comments about the sheer size of space before. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy describes it best: “Space is big, really big……………”
March 19th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Go go little Plutobot!
On Alan’s page there is a link to the (now couple of years old) “Decadonal” paper done for NASA by the National Academy of Sciences. Basically outlines their recommendation for what NASA should be doing for the decade. Pretty neat stuff in there.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
@drksky
Only 8 out of 10? I knew I should’ve avoided proper punctuation, capitalization and spelling.
@IVAN3MAN
Wine and cheese…hmm…my boss may disapprove. Not that I’m at work right now. That would be irresponsible. Or something….
March 19th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Oops “Decadal” Survey….hey, is that really a word anyway?
March 19th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
How can it be that “The probe was moving fastest right after launch”, I thought it gained a lot of speed when it passed by Jupiter? Didn’t the Jupiter encounter take like 4 or 5 years off of the potential 20 year travel time?
Or is my brain not working again today?
March 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
One thing that always bugged me about New Horizons’ design was that they didn’t try to incorporate some sort of ion engine into the little bugger. I know, I know, it would have gone well beyond the 1000lbs objective, but I’m impatient and I want it to get there faster!
March 19th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
@Todd: Not nearly enough capitals, and the spelling of “one” in the exclamation mark spew is too obvious. Afew bold tags thrown in here and there might have gotten you one more poin t.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
oh hai! i iz klingon. i finded your small probe, but i eated it. nom nom nom!
March 19th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
It is “interesting” that it is 1/3 of the way to Pluto? Why? Numerology?
The linked post was called “The PI’s Perspective”
1/3 is first approximation to 1/Pi
it’s 1155 days in … drop in those 3′s … and we get 113355 and as everyone knows 113/355 is a much better approximation to 1/Pi
January 19 – that’s my birthday
July 14 – that’s Bastille Day
3463 – that’s a prime number
er, that’s it, dumbest comment ever, I’m too embarrassed to leave my name
March 19th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
You know, Pluto used to be a planet when that sucker was launched. Now that it’s been demoted, will they be redirecting the probe to someplace more interesting?
March 19th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
There’s at least one other artificial object within a billion miles besides the booster: the de-spin mass that was released from the booster which is on its own hyperbolic trajectory.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
The part that goes “!!!1!!one! ” is just lovely
March 19th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we?
March 19th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
It makes me sad that it’ll take so long. Just watch…in a couple of years, there will be some big advance in telescope technology that will allow us to see Pluto just as well as New Horizons. If my cheap little iPod went obsolete in two years, what chance does a probe have of staying relevant for nine?
Not to be a party-pooper or anything.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Quatguy:
Like, er… from Wikipedia — New Horizons:
Like, er… click my name, dude, for more info…
March 19th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
@RND
There have been stupider post, and few of them have been mine.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
“Stupider”!? This opera’s as lousy as it is brilliant…
March 19th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Well I guess that last post proves it.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
And from IVAN3MAN’s link:
“New Horizons was launched on 19 January 2006 directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory. It had an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 kilometer per second…”
I don’t know what the correction from Earth to Sun-relative is…
March 19th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Colby,
There’s some difference between telescopes & iPods. There’s still plenty of room for improving electronic gadgets; innovations in software are possible, and the theoretical limit on memory density hasn’t been reached. In contrast, the only ways to improve telescopes is to make them larger and to lift them above the atmosphere. To optically resolve Pluto from Earth as crisply as New Horizons will would require a telescope with an aperture of Biblical proportions, even above the atmosphere. An interferometer could synthesize an aperture that large, but no such instrument will be online before NH gets to Pluto. Nothing of that magnitude is even on the drawing board.
And it’s not just crisp imagery that’s at issue. NH will directly measure other parameters not discernable from here on Earth (for example, the local magnetic field). Besides, we can’t hold back one technology on the guess that another “might” come along soon. If that were the case, then no interplanetary probes would ever be launched.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Like er….Thanks Ivan3Man
March 19th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
At what velocity is it travelling?
March 19th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Ludicrous Speed!
Sorry, I’ll go back to lurking now.
(BTW, the real answer is : 9.31 km/sec as posted by IVAN3MAN.)
March 19th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
crud… the post ate a 1 there… thats supposed to 19.31KM/sec, not 9
March 19th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Like, er… you’re welcome, Quatguy.
March 19th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Nope, still same old horizons.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
!AstralProjectile:
Although the Earth’s escape velocity at its surface is 11.186 km/s, the escape velocity of the Earth/Moon system with respect to the Sun is ~42.1 km/s; however, the Earth/Moon system both orbit the Sun at a velocity of 29.873 km/s* and any object launched at a tangent in the direction of Earth’s orbit will have that velocity plus the velocity of the object (spacecraft).
Therefore, since New Horizons was launched at an initial velocity of 16.26 km/s relative to Earth, its velocity relative to the Sun was 29.873 + 16.26 = 46.133 km/s — which is 4 km/s greater than the Earth/Moon escape velocity with respect to the Sun.
At New Horizons’ Jupiter encounter, the escape velocity of Jupiter with respect to the Sun is 18.5 km/s, but with gravity assist the velocity of New Horizons was re-boosted to 23 km/s relative to the Sun, which is 4.5 km/s greater than the escape velocity of Jupiter with respect to the Sun, and allowing it to escape the Jupiter system.
*Source: Wikipedia — Earth
March 20th, 2009 at 5:18 am
“You know, Pluto used to be a planet when that sucker was launched. Now that it’s been demoted, will they be redirecting the probe to someplace more interesting?”
Pluto is still interesting. Consider it one of the big Kuiper Belt Objects.
After all, we looked at a couple of comets and asteroids up close. So the KBOs also deserve attention!
March 20th, 2009 at 6:13 am
“You know, Pluto used to be a planet when that sucker was launched.”
Pluto is still a planet!
Dwarf planets are still planets – just like dwarf stars are still stars! and Pluto really is a proper planet for reasons I’ve outlined on this blog comments numerous times before. Many in both the astronomical and the broader community correctly refuse to accept the IAU’s illogical, undemocratic and incorrect definition.
The suckers at the IAU will (hopefully) soon find themselves demoted and having already demoted the status of the IAU which made a decision to reduce its own credibility by denying what clearly _is_ a planet its rightful planetary status.
PS. Well done & congratulations to all the New Horizon’s team!
March 20th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Oh & when New Horizon’s does pass Pluto & its moons Charon, Nix & Hydra here’s a prediction that everyone will see and refer to Pluto as a planet & the IAU’s ridiculous, absurd and downright dumb anti-Pluto definition will vanish in a sea of laughter and derison at the IAU and their Pluto-bashing backers.
Demoting Pluto will, I bet, be an astronomical embarrassment as well as a temporary aberration.
The best and only sane thing the IAU can do now is see sense now & admit they got it wrong & change their definition to one that includes Pluto before they end up looking even sillier than they already do!
March 20th, 2009 at 6:29 am
@ RND :
“er, that’s it, dumbest comment ever, I’m too embarrassed to leave my name.
Nah, your’s isn’t the dumbest ever. I’ve seen far worse here.
)
(Some may argue I’ve posted worse here myself!
Sadly, we do get a number of Creationist / Electric Cosmos / other nuttery trolls who lower the bar on your dumbest by astronomical orders of magnitude.
March 20th, 2009 at 6:31 am
… & no, I don’t want to encourage any of them by naming &/or quoting examples and trying for new “dumbest comment” records.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:08 am
(Channelling Yoda)
Icy, non-planet?!? My home this is!
@ GrandLunar :
“Consider it one of the big Kuiper Belt Objects.
Why doesn’t Professor Edgeworth ever get any credit? Pedantic nitpick I know, but technically its the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt.
Personally, I reckon TNO – Trans-Neptunian Object is a better term for such bodies ..
& Grand Lunar again :
“After all, we looked at a couple of comets and asteroids up close.”
Being pedantic (sorry) but there are NO ‘comets’ and ‘asteroids’ by IAU municipal decree either! Such objects are collectively (& stupidly & never-used-edly) “properly” termed “Small solar system bodies” instead!
Hey did anyone observe the awesome Small Solar System Body McNaught last year? Or small solar system bodies Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp a decade plus ago? Plus has anyone spotted small solar system body Vesta with their unaided eye? Its the only non-tailed small solar system body visible with unassisted human eyesight I’ve heard! Small solar System body Vesta even passes near “classical” planets sometimes so you can compare it with them and may be eventually termed a “dwarf planet” too – if this whole clasical / dwarf /small solar system terminology baloney isn’t desrevedly and thankfully scrapped beforehand!
Sheesh, that last paragraph just rolls off the tongue don’t it?
& finally for one last comment on Grand Lunar‘s post again :
(Sorry Grand Lunar, not meaning to pick on you or anything okay.
It just raises something I have to say.. No hard feelings I hope!)
“So the KBOs also deserve attention!”
I agree entirely that they do – 100%!
.. Yet, pedantically speaking yet again; lets recall that Phoebe, Saturn’s outermost moon briefly imaged by the Cassini spaceprobe
when it first arrived in the Saturnian system and Triton, Neptune’s largest and most fascinating moon seen by Voyager II thirty yeras ago (August 1989!) are both believed to be captured Edgeworth-Kuiper belt objects.
So it could be argued (even if only by argumentative ole me) that we’ve already seen a couple of EKBO’s!
Mind you, I’m really looking forward to New Horizon’s flying past my window! Nice of you humans to drop by after all these millions of years!
Pluto a planet well worth seeing & very picturesque too – we’ve won solar system tourist awards five million years in a row!
March 20th, 2009 at 7:14 am
@ Cheyenne Saying on March 19th, 2009 at 2:00 pm :
“Oops “Decadal” Survey….hey, is that really a word anyway?”
Yes – ‘Decadal’ is, indeed, a legitimate word.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:29 am
there are no man-made objects within a billion miles of New Horizons.
I think the wording that Alan Stern is groping for is ‘cleared its neighbourhood’…
March 20th, 2009 at 8:06 am
JWST might steal a bit of the show if it takes good shots of pluto in 2014 or so. It should be able to get fairly sharp images of the surface. But it will be good prep for the visit.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Space is empty. Just imagine embarking on a 9 year trip in which you anticipate no traffic whatsoever. Regarding earlier comments that some telescope will be invented before it gets there…sorry no way. There are no scopes even seeking funding that could accomplish such a feat. In addition more than just resolving the surface the probe will sample the local environment.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Does anyone know what the escape velocity of the Milky Way is?
March 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Escape velocity for the whole Milky Way galaxy would be an interesting problem. It depends on how far one is from the galactic center of mass. Simplifying it by treating it as a straight mass-distribution problem (that is to say, ignoring things such as that a black hole rests at the center), escape velocity starts at the center with a value of zero and increases as one approaches the galaxy’s maximum radius- then drops off with distance from there.
The same relationship would be true for any other body-Earth for example-if we ask how escape velocity changes with distance from the core.