Countdown to Pluto   
       
   Jan. 14, 2014:  Are we there yet?   
       
   One of the fastest spacecraft ever built -- NASA's New Horizons -- is hurtling   
   through the void at nearly one million miles per day.  Launched in 2006, it   
   has been in flight longer than some missions last, and it is nearing its   
   destination: Pluto.   
       
   "The encounter begins next January," says Alan Stern, of the Southwest   
   Research Institute and the mission's principal investigator. "We're less than   
   a year away."   
       
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUB7dRgClSQ   
       
   A new ScienceCast anticipates what New Horizons might find when it reaches   
   Pluto in 2015.   Play it   
       
   Closest approach is scheduled for July 2015 when New Horizons flies only   
   10,000 km from Pluto, but the spacecraft will be busy long before that date.    
   The first step, in January 2015, is an intensive campaign of photography by   
   the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager or "LORRI."  This will help mission   
   controllers pinpoint Pluto's location, which is uncertain by a few thousand   
   kilometers.   
       
   Auroras Underfoot (signup)"LORRI will photograph the planet against known   
   background star fields," explains Stern. "We'll use the images to refine   
   Pluto's distance from the spacecraft, and then fire the engines to make any   
   necessary corrections."   
       
   At first, Pluto and its large moon Charon will be little more than distant   
   pinpricks-"a couple of fat pixels," says Stern--but soon they will swell into   
   full-fledged worlds.   
       
   By late April 2015, the approaching spacecraft will be taking pictures of   
   Pluto that surpass the best images from Hubble.  By closest approach in July   
   2015, a whole new world will open up to the spacecraft's cameras. If New   
   Horizons flew over Earth at the same altitude, it could see individual   
   buildings and their shapes.   
       
   Stern is looking forward to one of the most exciting moments of the Space Age.   
       
   http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/   
       
   An artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft at Pluto.  More"Humankind   
   hasn't had an experience like this--an encounter with a new planet--in a long   
   time," he says.  "Everything we see on Pluto will be a revelation."   
       
   He likens New Horizons to Mariner 4, which flew past Mars in July 1965.  At   
   the time, many people on Earth, even some scientists, thought the Red Planet   
   was a relatively gentle world, with water and vegetation friendly to life.   
   Instead, Mariner 4 revealed a desiccated wasteland of haunting beauty.  New   
   Horizons' flyby of Pluto will occur almost exactly 50 years after Mariner 4's   
   flyby of Mars-and it could shock observers just as much.   
       
   Other than a few indistinct markings seen from afar by Hubble, Pluto's   
   landscape is totally unexplored. Although some astronomers call Pluto a   
   "dwarf" planet, Stern says there's nothing small about it.  "If you drove a   
   car around the equator of Pluto, the odometer would rack up almost 5,000   
   miles-as far as from Manhattan to Moscow." Such a traveler might encounter icy   
   geysers, craters, clouds, mountain ranges, rilles and valleys, alongside alien   
   landforms no one has ever imagined.   
       
   "There is a real possibility that New Horizons will discover new moons and   
   rings as well," says Stern.   
       
   Yes, Pluto could have rings.  Already, Pluto has five known moons: Charon,   
   Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Numerical simulations show that meteoroids   
   striking those satellites could send debris into orbit, forming a ring system   
   that waxes and wanes over time in response to changes in bombardment.   
       
   "We're flying into the unknown," says Stern, "and there is no telling what we   
   might find."   
       
   Credits:   
   Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit:   
   Science@NASA   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.98   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)