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NASA OKs Extended Mission to Kuiper Belt; Next Flyby Slated for 2019

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Pluto and its plutoids

Artist’s depiction of Pluto surrounded by a swarm of plutoids

NASA has given the green light to an extension of the current mission to the Kuiper Belt. After the historic flyby of planet Pluto last year, New Horizon spacecraft will perform another one within the belt.

New Horizon’s Next Stop

The next destination is called 2014 MU69, a mysterious Kuiper belt object located one billion miles away from the dwarf planet, which should be reached in 2019.

NASA scientists also plan to visit 20 more objects afterwards, or at least this is what mission investigator Allan Stern has said in April.

The space agency reassured us that the probe is fully operational, and could last 20 more years. The tiny craft will continue to collect scientific data deeper into the Kuiper Belt. Mission members acknowledged that Pluto flyby exceeded their expectations as they are still surprised by the data gathered back then.

A Challenging Mission

New Horizons data challenged past theories and computer models suggesting that Pluto is a cold dead world. In fact, the mission revealed that Pluto is geologically active under its icy crust and looks a lot more diverse than scientists have managed to imagine.

NASA’s Jim Green expressed his excitement over the extended mission to the “dark depths of the outer solar system” and explained that scientists had no knowledge of object 2014 MU69’s existence in 2006, when New Horizon was launched.

Among Kuiper Belt’s denizens, scientists explained, lie Pluto, comets, icy moons, and possibly other dwarf planets awaiting to be discovered. Pluto was relatively easy to spot as it is located on the outer reaches of the belt.

Dan Britt, a physicist from the University of Central Florida, described a mission to the Kuiper Belt as a “great frontier” of planetary science. Britt was recently picked to become a New Horizons science team member and study the new objects that will be discovered within the Kuiper Belt. He is now analyzing the geology of several icy leftovers inside the belt.

Scientists believe that the space rocks there may hold important clues to the creation of the solar system.

More missions to come

On Friday, NASA approved extension of other deep space missions including several Mars missions and a probe designed to orbit the Moon. Dawn spacecraft was ordered this week to continue its trip around dwarf planet Ceres. NASA scientists had hoped to move Dawn to an asteroid called Adeona since it has orbited Ceres for four years now.
Image Source: YouTube

 

New Horizon Probe Offers First Ever Closer Look of Pluto

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New Horizon Pluto pictures

NASA’s New Horizon is all geared up to make another history with its Pluto mission.

The space probe has travelled nearly five billion km to get a closer look of the dwarf planet.  However, it has to cross 200 more kilometers to reach at the destination. Last week, the government space agency released first few images of the dwarf planet.

Mark Holdrige, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University’s Applies Physics Laboratory talked disclosed the main aim of these photographs. He informs that scientists took these pictures in order to figure out the exact position of the dwarf planet.   They intend to carry out numerous corrections in the route of the spacecraft through these images. It will help the spacecraft to reach the icy object safely.

Although, these images are merely navigation pictures but still they are quite significant. Thus far, no probe or spacecraft has provided such a clear view of the dwarf planet.

The New horizon is expected to touch the surface of the second most massive dwarf planet at a speed of 14Km/s. As per the predictions of mission planners, the spacecraft would probably reach the dwarf planet at 11:50 GMT on the 14th of July 2015.

The chief objective of mission scientists is to fix seven different instruments on Pluto. These instruments will accumulate significant data and will send it to the space agency.

Dawn Spacecraft Offers the Close-up View of Ceres.

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images of Ceres

Recently, NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft sent several new images of the Ceres. The government space agency has released the latest Ceres pictures on the website. These images are three times better as compared to the previous ones. They are nearly 27 pixels wide.

Ceres is considered as the largest body present between the asteroid belt of Mars and Jupiter. The object consists of rock and ice and makes one third of the mass of the asteroid belt.

The Dawn spacecraft is expected to reach Ceres till the beginning of March 2015. In December, the probe captured two slightly blur images of the dwarf planet. The pictures were approximately one third of the size of the new images.

Earlier, it was an extremely complicated task for astronomers to understand surface of Ceres. However, the images of Dawn spacecraft solved all the issues of scientists.

Currently, the scientists at the Planetary Science Institute are carefully examining the images. They claimed that they have found the albedo characteristics of Ceres.

Andreas Nathues, main author of the report states that scientists spotted water vapors in the recent images of Ceres. Additionally, the images reveal presence of crater like structure on the surface of the planet.

The main aim of these pictures is to get navigation guidance for the spacecraft. The government space agency has planned to capture more images in the next few months.

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NASA Dawn Probe Gets Closer Look of Ceres, Sends Incredible Images

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Ceres image

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft safely reached near Ceres. The spacecraft captured some incredible images of the dwarf planet.

Ceres is the largest object present in the asteroid belt of Mars and Jupiter. It is made up of fragments of rock and ice. It covers a third of the mass of asteroid belt with a diameter of 950 kilometers

Scientists describe Ceres as an “embryonic planet” as it is an extremely complex task for the researchers to categorize the dwarf planet. The object is not a moon, not a planet or an asteroid. Scientists discovered that the dwarf planet is the combination of all these three things. Hence, the government space agency thinks that Ceres will offer significant information related to the formation of solar system.

In 2004, the Hubble Space telescope snapped a few images of the dwarf planet.  The images come with a resolution of 27 pixels from a long distance of nearly 383,000 kilometers.  Thus, those images were pretty rough in terms of quality.

Dawn Ceres images

Recently, dawn captured a few images of Ceres that are around 80 percent of the resolution of the Hubble Telescope. The images reveal that Ceres is nearly three times better than shown in all the previous images. However, the images published on the website of the space agency are grainy.

Andreas Nathues, head investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research informs that these are first images which are merely captured to get help in navigation. They will be utilized for the direction guidance of the spacecraft. The images evidently display the surface structure of the planet.

Astronomers Claim: Two Other Dwarf Planets May Exist Beyond Pluto

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two new planets

A new study proposes that two more unknown dwarf planets are lurking near Pluto. These planets are relatively larger than the size of the Earth.

A group of astronomers from Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge analyzed the objects present beyond the Neptune. Generally, these objects fly randomly near the elliptical paths.

It is essential for ETNO to fulfill certain conditions. For instance, these ETNO orbits must contain semi-major axis or they should maintain an average distance of 150 AU from sun.

Astonishingly, scientists observed an alteration in the usual characterizes of ETNO. They discovered a group of objects which are located at a distance of 525 AU in the region of ETNO.  In comparison, the Earth is nearly one astronomical unit away from the sun.

Hence, astronomers are trying to figure out the exact number of these objects. Thus far, they confirmed the presence of two new planets.

Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, the lead author of the study states that the unexpected orbital parameters indicate the presence of two planets. The parameter revealed that some kind of force is changing the distribution of the orbital components of ETNO.

Earlier, scientists are aware of the fact that the Pluto’s region of the solar system is filled with nearly 1500 minute, cold worlds.  Recently they uncovered that there are still numerous other worlds that are not yet explored.

NASA New Horizon Geared Up For Pluto Probe

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New horizon spacecraft

NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft woke up from its last hibernation in early December. On Thursday, the spacecraft started its Pluto Journey.  It is all set to provide the first close up of Pluto on the 14th of July 2015.

Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Department talked about the Pluto mission. He said that it would be the first time in the history when a space agency would explore the dwarf planet.

The new Horizon spacecraft was launched in January 2006. The space craft travelled for a long time period of nine years.  Thus far, it has covered approximately 4.8 billion km (3 billion miles) from the Earth.

Alan Stern, head investigator of New Horizon spacecraft said that the spacecraft accomplished one of the longest journeys in the history of space exploration.

The spacecraft and engineering team have planned to begin the remote observation of Pluto from 25th of January. The space probe will make use of long-range photo imager for this purpose.

In the beginning, the smallest planet would merely appear like a dot in the images. However, it will help scientists in designing the future strategies for the Pluto mission. It will also provide significant information about the appropriate methods to cross the rest of the 220 million kilometers (135 million miles).

 

NASA’s Pluto-Bound New Horizon Spacecraft Woke Up From 18th Hibernation

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Pluto-bound-Probe-Wakes

According to the recent reports revealed, on Saturday night, NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons probe turned off its snooze alarm for the last time to get prepared for a long-anticipated exploration of the dwarf planet and its Kuiper Belt neighbors.

Ground control groups at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland got a radio transmission around 9:30 pm. EST that the probe woke up from electronic snooze, its eighteenth hibernation period since its 3-billion-mile journey started in January 2006.

New Horizons Spies Pluto’s Tiny Moon Hydra

“This is truly an epic expedition,” lead scientist Alan Stern told reporters at the American Astronomical Society conference a month ago.

Alice Bowman, mission operations manager, said New Horizons used up a sum of 1,873 days in hibernation, with periods ranging from 36 to 202 days.

Pluto Getting Bigger in New Horizons Probe’s Window

The downtime left the rocket allowed to gather dust particles and run science tests without having a pricey flight control group or expecting to utilize NASA’s profound space communications system.

New Horizons prearranged wake-up call now gives the group around 6-weeks to adjust the spaceship tools, load software, plan recorders and check different frameworks before the primary science mission starts 15th Jan. The shuttle will make its closest approach to Pluto on 14th July.

Could We Call Pluto and Charon a ‘Binary Planet’ so far?

Pluto, which was still viewed as a planet when New Horizons launched, is currently known as a dwarf planet, one of thousands spotted past Neptune’s orbit in the unexplored Kuiper Belt section of the earth’s planetary group.

Researchers think Kuiper Belt-type items were the building blocks of planets. New Horizons will be the first shuttle to study Pluto.

“Our insight of Pluto is truly scanty … regardless of the walk of innovation on the ground, even with the Hubble Space Telescope,” Stern said. “New Horizons will compose a workbook on the Pluto framework and the Kuiper Belt.”

The New Horizons Spacecraft Continues Journey, After Pluto

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new-horizons-spacecraft

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is now setting its sights on other bodies in our solar system after having had a good visit to Pluto.

The Hubble Space Telescope had already spotted three distant bodies that the spacecraft might possibly visit after finishing a flyby of Pluto in 2015. NASA figures one of the bodies is achievable to visit while the other takes more data and technology to see if it can be reached.

Launched in 2006, the New Horizons craft’s primary mission was to get close to Pluto and photograph it and its moons but the team handling the probe want it to check out other objects way out there in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a region of our solar system that encircles the Sun at a distance farther out than the outer planets like Neptune. The Kuiper Belt is made up of icy bodies, perhaps even undiscovered planets and their moons.

Getting a deep understanding of the objects in the Kuiper Belt might give us an insight into the origins of the solar system. Scientists are so eager to look at these objects way out there because even though they’re far from the Sun, there is evidence of intriguing characteristics that are just to irresistible to NASA.

The Hubble Space telescope was used to find some KBOs or Kuiper Belt Objects and soon several about 15-30 miles in diameter. The objects are so distant that it will take a while for NASA to examine them as they’re scheduled to fly by Pluto in 2015 and the other objects in 2019 but that’s only if NASA gives the go ahead for the funding.

What lies beyond the Kuiper Belt is still a mystery to scientists and the public. Should some new, groundbreaking discover occur then NASA will have a coup for sure.

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