Solar System

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A NASA spacecraft speeding toward an epic flyby of Pluto on July 14 has beamed home its first good looks at two moons of the dwarf planet.

The New Horizons probe captured images of Nix and Hydra, two of Pluto's five known satellites, from Jan. 27 through Feb. 8, at distances ranging from 125 million miles to 115 million miles (201 million to 186 million kilometers), NASA officials said.



New Horizons team members discovered Nix and Hydra in 2005 using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists think both moons are between 25 miles and 95 miles (40 to 153 km) wide; New Horizons should nail down their sizes when it zooms through the Pluto system this summer.

Hydra is Pluto’s outermost known moon and circles the dwarf planet every 38 days, at a distance of about 40,200 miles (64,700 km). Nix lies 30,260 miles (48,700 km) from Pluto and completes one orbit every 25 days.

Two other Pluto moons, Styx and Kerberos, are smaller than Nix and Hydra, and are too faint to show up in the latest New Horizons images.

The $700 million New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, tasked with lifting the veil on faraway, mysterious Pluto. On July 14, New Horizons will come within 8,500 miles (13,600 km) of the dwarf planet's surface.

That highly anticipated flyby may not mark the end of the probe's deep-space work. Mission team members want to send New Horizons on to explore a second body in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy objects beyond Neptune that Pluto calls home. If NASA fu



http://www.space.com/28597-new-hori...eo.html#ooid=YycHFnczpaJ1q_RG4Y2mGc8x6a2iGfdW

 

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Mars shown above a bright Venus above a sliver of Moon............................gorgeous.
The pairing is known as a ‘conjunction’, which means the planets are positioned in such a form that they appear aligned from Earth.



They wont appear this close together 'til Oct 2017

Isle of Wight UK

 

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Solar Eclipse 20th March 2015 in case you are interested


A solar eclipse is set to block out nearly 90 per cent of sunlight across parts of Europe next month - and it will be the biggest event of its kind in 16 years.

On 20 March, the moon's orbit will see it travel in front of the sun, casting a shadow over Earth.

The eclipse will see up to 84 per cent of the sun covered in London - and around 94 per cent in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, electricity system operators have warned the eclipse poses a serious risk of blackouts all over Europe as the continent increasingly relies on solar power.

In London, the partial eclipse - when the moon starts touching the sun's edge - will start at 8.45am GMT. The maximum eclipse will hit at 9.31am and this will be the point when the moon is closest to the centre of the sun.

By 10.41am the moon will leave the sun's edge and the partial eclipse will end

This animation is designed to appear from the 'point of view' of the eclipse as it will occur on March 20. It shows the shadow being cast over the UK, Greenland, Europe and into Russia


WHAT IS A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE?

A total solar eclipse is only visible from a certain region on Earth and those who can see it are in the centre of the moon's shadow when it hits Earth. For a total eclipse to take place, the sun, moon and Earth must be in a direct line. The totality of the 11 August 1999 eclipse is shown

An eclipse occurs when one heavenly body, such as a moon or planet, moves into the shadow of another. On Earth there are two types - lunar eclipses and solar eclipses.

Lunar eclipse: For a lunar eclipse, the Earth moves between the sun and the moon and blocks sunlight normally reflected by the moon.

Instead of light hitting the moon’s surface, Earth's shadow falls on it and a lunar eclipse can only happen when the moon is full.

Solar eclipse: By comparison, a solar eclipse occurs when the orbit of the moon moves it between the sun and Earth.

A solar eclipse occurs when the orbit of the moon moves it between the sun and Earth. When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun

When this happens, the moon blocks the light of the sun reaching Earth and the moon casts a shadow on Earth.

Types of shadow: During a solar eclipse, the moon casts two shadows on Earth.

The first shadow is called the umbra, and this gets smaller as it reaches Earth.

The second shadow is known as the penumbra, and this gets larger as it reaches Earth.

There are additionally three types of solar eclipses:

Total: A total solar eclipse is only visible from a certain region on Earth and those who can see it are in the centre of the moon's shadow when it hits Earth.

For a total eclipse to take place, the sun, moon and Earth must be in a direct line.

People standing in the umbra will see a total eclipse and this will occur over the Faroe Islands on 20 March.

Partial solar eclipse: This occurs when the sun, moon and Earth don't line up exactly.

People standing in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse.

Annular: An annular eclipse happens when the moon is farthest from Earth. Because the moon is further from Earth, it appears smaller.

As a result, it doesn't block the entire view of the sun. The moon in front of the sun resembles a dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk and creates what looks like a ring around the moon.

Source: Nasa

 

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Not Solar System........galactic

Now THAT'S a shooting star! White dwarf breaks galactic speed record by travelling at 745 miles per SECOND

• Astronomers in Hawaii have found the fastest 'unbound' star in the galaxy
• Called US 708 it is moving at 745 miles (1,200km) per second
• It will leave the galaxy in about 25 million years
• The star was given its rapid speed due to its companion going supernova
• It is the first star found to be leaving the galaxy caused by such an event

A star that is travelling fast enough to escape the gravitational clutches of our galaxy has been discovered by a team of astronomers.
The amazing stellar object attained its rapid speed when a nearby star exploded as a supernova, sending it out of the Milky Way.
At its current speed it would make the journey from Earth to the moon in just five minutes - a trip which took the Apollo spacecraft three days.

The star, known as US 708, was first discovered in 1982 by Dr Peter Usher of Pennsylvania State University but had since then remained ignored.
However, a team of astronomers led by the University of Hawaii at Manoa has now re-examined the star, and found that it breaks the galactic speed record for an 'unbound' star.
US 708 is almost 62,000 light-years from Earth, and is on a path that will take it out of the Milky Way in about 25 million years.
Using the 10-metre Keck II and Pan-Starrs1 telescopes in Hawaii, the astronomers calculated that the star is moving at about 745 miles (1,200km) per second.
This makes it the fastest ‘rogue’ star in the galaxy - one that is no longer orbiting the centre.
‘At that speed, you could travel from Earth to the moon in five minutes,’ said Dr Eugene Magnier of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
‘By observing the sky repeatedly over several years, the Pan-Starrs1 survey, let us make a movie of the motions of the stars in the sky.
‘That enables us to study the behavioirs of extremely rare and weird stars like US 708.’
While a handful of other stars escaping the galaxy are known, this is the first to have been found that was ejected by a thermonuclear supernova explosion.
US 708, which is a helium-rich white dwarf, was propelled at high speeds when a more massive white dwarf star nearby in a tight binary blew up.

This particular class of supernova is known as type 1a, where material is transferred between one star and another until one reaches a critical mass, and explodes.
Often, the secondary star is obliterated in the resulting explosion, or pushed away at a more sedate speed.
It is 'pushed' away because the loss of its companion means it no longer has a star to orbit, but retains its forwards momentum, so it is flung into space.
The specific characteristics of this binary system, its distance and the mass of its companion, allowed US 708 to remain intact while still achieving record speeds for an unbound star.
Stars like the sun are bound to our galaxy by its gravity, and orbit its centre at relatively moderate velocities, typically tens to a few hundreds of kilometres per second.
Only so-called hyperveolocity stars are known to travel so fast that they are unbound to the galaxy.
In addition, to escape from the Milky Way an object needs to exceed the ‘escape velocity’ - the strength of its gravitational pull.

The escape velocity of our galaxy is about 375 miles (600km) per second, which US 708 easily exceeds.
Astronomers hope that studying the star could help reveal how such helium-rich stars and thermonuclear supernovae are linked.

 

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Astronomers uncover a second minor planet in our solar system that may have rings

• Minor planet is known as Chiron and located between Saturn and Uranus
• Discovery was made by studying dimming of star as it passed behind Chiron
• Astronomers say ringed bodies may be more common than first thought
• Researchers are still unsure how rings stay place on such a small 'planet'

Rings of gas and dust are known to encircle Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.
Scientists recently discovered a fifth member of this haloed group known as Chariklo, which is one of a class of minor 'centaur' planets.
Now astronomers have detected a possible ring system around a second centaur, Chiron, suggesting that ringed bodies may be more common in our solar system previously thought.


WHAT IS A CENTAUR PLANET?
Like their mythological counterparts, centaurs are hybrids, embodying traits of both asteroids and comets.
Today, scientists estimate there are more than 44,000 centaurs in the solar system, concentrated mainly in a band between the orbits of Jupiter and Pluto.
Chiron, discovered in 1977, was the first planetary body categorised as a centaur, after the mythological Greek creature -- a hybrid of man and beast.

Pictured are the positions of known outer solar system objects. The centaurs are those objects (in green) that lie generally inwards of the Kuiper belt (in blue)




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...d-minor-planet-solar-rings.html#ixzz3UdLS9Tlm

 

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With just weeks left before it crashes into its host planet, (APRIL 30th) NASA's Messenger spacecraft is making the most of its extremely low altitude and finding that Mercury isn't a completely dead world. -

Good stuff here
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/messenger-mercury-mysteries-03172015/

 

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National Geograhic Top 10 Hubble images.
more galactic than solar system but whatever...... they are remarkable and beautiful, (yes we all know they are false colour.)

Hubble Space Telescope launched on 24 April 1990

As a taster....this is # 9

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/hubble-telescope/hubble-photography

 

[tanvirnabi]

It is amazing. You labor hard. Thanks for all works. I would visit this thread more.

 

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NASA's MESSENGER probe,
which has been orbiting Mercury since March 2011, is nearly out of fuel and will smash into the planet on Thursday (April 30), probably around 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT), space agency officials say. NASA released the new MESSENGER video on Monday (April 27) as a tribute, and a memorial of sorts.

wiki for more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER

 

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This is the last photo captured and sent to Earth by NASA’s MESSENGER Mercury probe. The spacecraft took the image on April 30, 2015, shortly before crashing into Mercury’s surface in a death dive that ended four years of operations at the solar system’s innermost planet.

Here is a video compilation of Messengers' mission

http://www.space.com/29281-messenge...5-05-01#ooid=ZtbXhydDp1f81Aj3OdGdsUOpu4wnAmop

http://www.space.com/29281-messenger-spacecraft-mercury-crash.html?cmpid=NL_SP_weekly_2015-05-01

 

[Ahhzz]

I think the article I read stated that the probe actually had a thousand images that they would never see because the probe was on the far side for impact. I'll have to look it up and see what changed....

 

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Stunning close-up reveals Saturn's crumpet moon.
Named Hyperion, the moon's porous surface can be seen in incredible detail in this image taken by Cassini as it performed a flyby of the satellite.

measuring 255 by 161 miles (410 by 260km)

Esa has just released a refined, false-colour perspective of the moon in which its surface features were highlighted by toning down its natural redness.

During the flyby, the probe got more than it bargained for as Hyperion unleashed a burst of charged particles towards the spacecraft, effectively delivering a giant 200-volt electric shock.

It appears that Hyperion's surface becomes electrostatically charged as it is bathed in charged particles.
These particles are constantly streaming out into space from the sun, but Hyperion also has to deal with ones trapped within the magnetic field of its host planet, Saturn

Hyperion is shaped like a potato and is one of the largest bodies in the solar system known to be so irregular.

Its odd, almost 'bubbly' appearance, can be attributed to it having a very low density for its size.

Because of these properties the entire moon is porous, like a sponge, with well-preserved craters of various sizes packed together across its surface.

Scientists think that this moon is mostly made up of water ice, with small amounts of rock, and around 40 per cent of it is empty space.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(moon)

 

[Caring1]

It looks like a piece of dead coral, filled with holes where the animals used to live.

 

[dorsetknob]

It looks like a piece of dead coral, filled with holes where the animals used to live.

Well you know that as the outer solar system cooled and this moon became
uninhabitable "THE CLANGERS" migrated to our MOON "

Green Cheese anyone ?

 

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I think the article I read stated that the probe actually had a thousand images that they would never see because the probe was on the far side for impact. I'll have to look it up and see what changed....

Nothing changed, the pic i showed was the last one received. In the same way that Apollo craft were out of signal on the far side of the moon.
Mercury was "in the way". So the 1000 or so pics that were taken behind Mercury's shadow were taken, probably sent but never received.

 

[Ahhzz]

Nothing changed, the pic i showed was the last one received. In the same way that Apollo craft were out of signal on the far side of the moon.
Mercury was "in the way". So the 1000 or so pics that were taken behind Mercury's shadow were taken, probably sent but never received.

sorry, I took your "shortly before crashing" to mean that they had some images directly before the "Final Impact"

 

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Messenger.......Mercury

Excuse my indulgence but i like these missions and i especially like good photos so ive gathered a few here.

The Messenger probe, seen here lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on board a Boeing Delta II rocket in August 2004

Here is the launch. August 3, 2004 at 2:15:56 a.m

Here is a wiki link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER


Mercury's sunlit side is photographed by the Wide Angle Camera of the Mercury Dual Imaging System on board Nasa's Messenger spacecraft

an image of Mercury made during a January 2008 flyby. According to Nasa scientists the image shows 'that volcanoes were involved in plains formation and suggest that its magnetic field is actively produced in the planet's core.

The Rembrandt impact basin discovered by the Messenger spacecraft during its second flypast of Mercury in October
2008

October 2008

And finally..........the view back to Earth and our Moon

If you fancy a quick read (2/3 mins) there are something interesting facts here, nothing too technical.
http://www.space.com/11147-nasa-mercury-spacecraft-surprising-facts-messenger.html

 

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Send your selfie into space

Join in the adventure of space exploration and send your selfie to space aboard 2016 LightSail mission! LightSail is designed to demonstrate solar sailing, using the momentum of sunlight to propel small spacecraft through space. Submit your selfie and be a part of the world's first citizen-funded solar sail adventure.

http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/lightsail/


I am # 4028........climb aboard there's loads of room ! I managed to bag a window seat.

 

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Bumping my previous post.......

SEND YOUR FACE TO SPACE.......


theres a badger coming with me........my avatar # 4927

the wife heard i was off to space without her.......she wants to come now, bloody typical,

at least i wont have to sit next to her..

 

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Bumping my previous post.......

SEND YOUR FACE TO SPACE.......

Guess What ? you are all coming with me


@W1zzard i dont know if it is a first, but TPU is off to space !!! Hope you dont mind.

http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/lightsail/

 

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@DinaAngel is up for it, shes coming too !

 

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@Knoxx29 is coming along


and his dogs

 

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• Konstantinos Emmanouilidis took these amazing pics I think they are fabulous, keep looking up folks.

A golden-coloured moon rises above the famous Temple of the ancient Greek God Poseidon in Athens

the ruins of the Temple of Dimitra on Naxos Island, Greece

An ancient ruined church glows an eerie shade of blue, lit up against the backdrop of the Milky Way

WOW just WOW

In this time lapse photograph, a golden full moon transitions into the sky - turning from yellow to red - above Mount Athos

A horizontal trail shows ISS, as well as several other smaller satellites, passing above Mount Athos in Greece

 

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• Polish photographer Bartosz Wojczyski took the images over half an hour from his balcony Piekary Iskie, Poland

• He spent six hours stitching together 32,000 separate images of the lunar surface to create the final photograph

• It reveals the spray of debris thrown out by meteorite impacts and the patterns made by ancient volcanic flows

Spoiler: Moon Facts

http://space-facts.com/the-moon/

 

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LightSail has deployed

A spacecraft designed to glide across space using light from the sun has deployed its giant sail after several delays.

The LightSail spacecraft has been beset with problems since it was launched at the end of May after engineers lost contact with it shortly after it entered orbit.

However, after managing to make contact with the vehicle again, scientists have now confirmed that the space vehicle has deployed its 344 sq ft (32 square metre) sail.


Although the tiny LightSail 1, which was launched on 20 May atop an Atlas V rocket from Florida, will not travel high enough to sail on the sun's light, it has shown the design can be deployed effectively.

LightSail has four metal booms that unwind four triangular Mylar sails, each of which is around a fourth as thick as the average plastic bin bag.

Managers behind the mission at the Planetary Society said they attempted to download pictures from the spacecraft but the files came back incomplete. They are hoping to attempt again later today so they can see how the sail has been deployed.

This mission will serve as a precursor for two further missions that will aim to send light sails out of the Earth's orbit and prove the technology can be effectively used.

David Spencer, mission manager for LightSail said the tiny motor that deployed LightSail's solar sails sprung into life at around 3.47pm EDT on Sunday.

He said: 'All indications are that the solar sail deployment was proceeding nominally.'

According to the LightSail's Mission Control page, the Planetary Society is now downloading the first image of the solar sail in deployment.

Fragments of the image have already been downloaded and show the sail apparently unfurled.

The test has been dogged with problems after a software glitch shortly after launch caused the spacecraft to reboot.

It is thought that a stray cosmic particle triggered the reboot of the spacecrafts system.

However, after eight days in orbit scientists on the ground were able to make contact with LightSail again.

According to a post on the The Planetary Society's website, LightSail deployed its solar sail while tracking across the sky above the southwestern United States through the Gulf of California.

Writing on the LightSail blog, Jason Davis said: 'Because LightSail’s orbit is already beginning to deteriorate, the engineering team will convene at 4 a.m. EDT tomorrow to plan the day’s actitivies, based on the contents of the completed sail image.

'If the sail is not completely tensioned, the booms will be "walked out" incrementally, providing important motor count data in preparation for the second flight in 2016.

LightSail was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on 20 May from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

At its core is a tiny craft made up of three 'CubeSats', which are essentially tiny spacecraft that can be launched relatively cheaply.

In total, the core of the vehicle weighs 22lbs (10kg) and is just 11.8-inches (30cm) high and 3.9-inches (10cm) wide - about the size of a loaf of bread.

At the bottom of the spacecraft on each of its four sides, a huge solar sail has been 'folded up'.

This sail, measuring 345 square ft (32 square metres) in size, is made of an extremely reflective material called Mylar.

It is just 4.5 microns thick - about a quarter of the thickness of a bin bag.

If it is unfurled, photons from the sun will strike the sail and push it forwards, similar to how a sail on Earth catches the wind.

The push is extremely minimal - less than holding a sheet of paper in your hand - but it is theorised that, over time, this push could build up enough to reach high speeds.


Dont forget WE ARE ONBOARD