New Horizons Jupiter encounter

[ToSeek]

Worth starting a specific thread for, particularly with this article:

New Horizons at Jupiter: Dreams and Reality

We've been working for several years on a plan for making the most of New Horizons' flight past Jupiter. For our prime mission, Jupiter's really just a stepping stone, a gravitational convenience, giving us a boost that shaves a few precious years off our flight time to Pluto. But it's also one of the most amazing neighborhoods in the solar system, a place full of wonders, and although we're the eighth spacecraft to Jupiter, the payload that we're carrying to Pluto is well suited for some unique Jupiter science, too.

Since we started work on this mission in earnest in 2001, we've been aware of how much we stand to learn from a Jupiter flyby, and we've been developing a wish list of observations of the Jupiter system that we'd like to make. Some of these use New Horizons' unique capabilities to fill gaps in our knowledge -- for instance we don't yet have a good handle on the atmospheres of Jupiter's four big "Galilean" moons, and our ultraviolet instrument, Alice, can help with that by watching stars as they pass behind the moons.

[jfribrg]

I've been following the New Horizons tracking web page. The heliocentric velocity has been decreasing steadily due to the gravitational pull of the Sun. At some point, the gravity of Jupiter will cause a substantial increase in the heliocentric velocity of New Horizons. Does anyone know when this will happen?

[Hamlet]

I've been following the New Horizons tracking web page. The heliocentric velocity has been decreasing steadily due to the gravitational pull of the Sun. At some point, the gravity of Jupiter will cause a substantial increase in the heliocentric velocity of New Horizons. Does anyone know when this will happen?

New Horizons closest approach to Jupiter is on February 28, 2007. Here's an animated GIF I put together that shows the approach and encounter. Warning: This is a 2MB file.

[jfribrg]

New Horizons closest approach to Jupiter is on February 28, 2007.

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my question. The question wasn't when the flyby would occur, but when the heliocentric velocity would start increasing. Presumably, this will occur well before 2/28/07.

[Dana_Mix]

Perhaps I wasn't clear in my question. The question wasn't when the flyby would occur, but when the heliocentric velocity would start increasing. Presumably, this will occur well before 2/28/07.

On Feb 09, about 22h. It will then be 30.1 Gm from Jupiter. This comes from JPL Horizons, the telnet version.

[jfribrg]

I've been following the New Horizons tracking web page. The heliocentric velocity has been decreasing steadily due to the gravitational pull of the Sun. At some point, the gravity of Jupiter will cause a substantial increase in the heliocentric velocity of New Horizons. Does anyone know when this will happen?

On Feb 09, about 22h. It will then be 30.1 Gm from Jupiter. This comes from JPL Horizons, the telnet version.

The hour is upon us in which the heliocentric velocity of NH will start to increase. For the last 2 days it has been approximately steady at 19.49 km/s and it will probably remain so for the next day or so before the increase becomes noticeable. From what I can gather from a couple of NASA ress releases, the heliocentric velocity will only increase to 22 km/s or so. That doesnt seem like a large percentage change in velocity, but nonetheless, it is enough to take several years off of the primary mission.

[George]

From what I can gather from a couple of NASA ress releases, the heliocentric velocity will only increase to 22 km/s or so. That doesnt seem like a large percentage change in velocity, but nonetheless, it is enough to take several years off of the primary mission.

Even if it is just ~2.5 km/s, that's still about 9,000 km/hr, which is a lick.

Our club meeting tonight had Randy Gladstone of SWRI's New Horizons team. His presentation was very interesting. He explained the instruments and some of their current activity. The solar wind unit is still a bit too close to the sun as it has gaps in the data when it shut down due to the sun's extreme brightness.

NH will be traveling down Jupiter's magnetic tail for quite a ways allowing for some unique study; no other craft has done this, I think. However, it will not be able to look at Jupiter after the fly-by due to the sun's proximity to Jupiter.

He said the lauch of NH went perfect and was a first for such a payload in that powerful rocket. NH was the fastest craft ever to leave Earth. It passed the moon after only about 9 hours!

It will pass much closer to Jupiter than Cassini and imaging should be impressive, though he said Cassini was like a Cadilac compared to their VW bug.

The RALPH instrument has color imaging and I asked if it would render near true color and he indicated they hope to produce some true color imaging.

Another asked what expectations they might have for new discovery. He said they had a blackboard, or something, where they were to list their expectations of the unexpected. His favorite seems to have been the one someone posted showing a tombstone of Jimmy Hoffa.

Another asked if they had considered an impact mission as in Huygens. He said they had but there is a lot of interest in getting out into the Kuiper Belt and that some wanted to skip Pluto to do it quicker. He paused and said, of course, it may still prove to be an impact mission.

He is strong in atmospheric studies, apparently. One odd thing recently discovered, is that ammonia clouds do not register much unless they are "fresh ammonia". Jupiter storms will produce plumes that rise up and bring forth "fresh ammonia" that is detectable. Weird, huh?

He was pleased to tell us that they have been given much Hubble time and a little Chandra time, too. I want to say it is about 100 Hubble orbits total.

The dish antenna will serve as a receiver for microwave studies, as well as its obvious use.

They will only fire sytems up once a year after the fly-by [of Jupiter].

Of course, someone asked the stupid question regarding Pluto's planetary status (before I could ask it ). I could not hear him say who it was that is working on that, but I'd guess he said Alan Stern.

I figured I would try and hit the high points before I forget them by tomorrow.

[Nicolas]

Jupiter's really just a stepping stone, a gravitational convenience

I hear Jupiter thinking now "well thank you so much! First Pluto is just an object, now I'm just a gravitational convenience. Next thing we know the sun will be an energetic convenience and the Universe a spatial convenience. I'll convience the heck out of that blue marble the next time I pass it's orbit. Too bad I don't. That's an orbital inconvenience..*rant goes on for eons*"


I'm very curious to the scientific return of NH on Jupiter and its moons! Would be a bit ironic were this secondary mission to give more scientif return than the primary one though. At least it will be a good warm-up for the science team of NH. Let's get ready to learn!

[ToSeek]

I hear Jupiter thinking now "well thank you so much! First Pluto is just an object, now I'm just a gravitational convenience. Next thing we know the sun will be an energetic convenience and the Universe a spatial convenience. I'll convience the heck out of that blue marble the next time I pass it's orbit. Too bad I don't. That's an orbital inconvenience..*rant goes on for eons*"

"And if they keep stealing my momentum for these flybys, someday I'm going to be spiraling into the Sun!"

[Doodler]

"And if they keep stealing my momentum for these flybys, someday I'm going to be spiraling into the Sun!"

Wouldn't that be a sick irony? The great phase of outer system exploration causes Jupiter to absord the Earth long before the Sun does.

[Maksutov]

Originally Posted by Nicolas
I hear Jupiter thinking now "well thank you so much! First Pluto is just an object, now I'm just a gravitational convenience. Next thing we know the sun will be an energetic convenience and the Universe a spatial convenience. I'll convience the heck out of that blue marble the next time I pass it's orbit. Too bad I don't. That's an orbital inconvenience..*rant goes on for eons*"

"And if they keep stealing my momentum for these flybys, someday I'm going to be spiraling into the Sun!"

By which time the Sun will be a black dwarf named, by the real denizens of the Universe, Alberich. (cue the Wagner)

[Ilya]

I'm very curious to the scientific return of NH on Jupiter and its moons! Would be a bit ironic were this secondary mission to give more scientif return than the primary one though.

It is pretty much certain that Jupiter encounter will provide more data than Pluto encounter - simply because it will last longer, and brighter sunlight allows shorter exposures. But "more data" does not necessarily translate into "more scientif return." At this point, the chances of a single flyby discovering something really new about Jupiter system (as opposed to refining what we already know) are low. The chances of discovering something really new about Pluto are very high.

[Lord Jubjub]

At 24,000,000 km--the pull of Jupiter on NH will begin to become greater than the Sun's pull.

[Saluki]

Any idea of when we might start seeing NH Jupiter pictures? I am sure they would be nothing spectacular at this point, but it would give us something to look at/talk about during the interim.

[Romanus]

^
On the Unmanned Spaceflight board, I've heard the first week of January bounced around as the the beginning of observations. Similarly, observations will continue for a few weeks after the encounter.

[ToSeek]

Wow! Thanks to the coffee shop's wireless Internet, the first Jupiter image from New Horizons just landed on my desktop! A deliberately smeared-out streak, of no use for anything but camera calibration, but it's a thrill to have Jupiter in our sights at last. The first drop of water trickles out of the firehose.

- http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000696/

[Launch window]

- http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000696/

This is the first probe launched directly towards Jupiter since Ulysses in 1990

[antoniseb]

This is the first probe launched directly towards Jupiter since Ulysses in 1990

You don't count Cassini (1997) because it made fly-bys of Venus and Earth?

[Doodler]

You don't count Cassini (1997) because it made fly-bys of Venus and Earth?

I think the keyword is "directly".

[Argos]

The fact that itīs gonna take roughy one year to go to Jupiter is amazing in itself...

[ToSeek]

Our plans for Jupiter range from some uniquely new studies of Jupiter's rings to compositional and atmospheric observations of Jupiter's Galilean satellites at resolutions that neither the Galileo nor Cassini missions achieved. We'll also study Jupiter's meteorology, its great and little red spots, its magnetosphere and its dust streams. We'll also closely analyze the giant planet's aurora and its link to changes in the Io plasma torus orbiting roughly 420,000 kilometers above Jupiter's equator.

The New Horizons Jupiter science observations will begin in early January and stretch into late June, almost four months after we pass Jupiter. This approximately 150-day encounter will mimic our Pluto encounter in length, data volume returned, and operational intensity. All of this, of course, is designed to prove out our planning tools, our simulation capabilities, our spacecraft and our instrument sensors in a real-world encounter environment well before we have to begin planning for the Pluto encounter.

- http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/piP...ve_current.php

[Nicolas]

But "more data" does not necessarily translate into "more scientif return."

You are allowed to correct my typos when quoting me .

I didn't find a link to that first Jupiter pic?

[ToSeek]

I didn't find a link to that first Jupiter pic?

Nor have I.

[Nicolas]

OK if Mr Google himself can't find it, I shouldn't feel bad about it .

[ToSeek]

[Southern drawl]If Ah ain't found it, then it just ain't there.[/Southern drawl]

[ToSeek]

Okay, well, now there is:

Pluto-bound Probe Snaps Photo of Jupiter

NASA's New Horizons probe, bound for Pluto, snapped an image of Jupiter that astronomers said serves as a promise of what's to come early next year when the craft nears the gas giant planet.

New Horizons won't reach Pluto until 2015. Meantime it is testing out its equipment on a much larger target.

The craft was about 181 million miles (291 million kilometers) away from Jupiter when the image was snapped with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).

EDIT: Phil notes the image and also notes that it was a 6 millisecond (!) exposure.

[Doodler]

Okay, well, now there is:

Pluto-bound Probe Snaps Photo of Jupiter





EDIT: Phil notes the image and also notes that it was a 6 millisecond (!) exposure.

RED ALERT! RED ALERT!! INCOMING WOO WOO POST ABOUT STARS NOT APPEARING IN THE PICTURE!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

Seriously, that's an impressive shot for so fast an exposure.

[antoniseb]

RED ALERT! ... STARS NOT APPEARING IN THE PICTURE!!

Good heavens! You're right! I bet there is some difficulty getting NH to Pluto now that it's only a dwarf planet, and they need to simulate the whole mission with CGI and fractals.

[Doodler]

Good heavens! You're right! I bet there is some difficulty getting NH to Pluto now that it's only a dwarf planet, and they need to simulate the whole mission with CGI and fractals.

Hehe, sorry, only meant to sound the alarm, not be the cause of it.

[Launch window]

Okay, well, now there is:

Pluto-bound Probe Snaps Photo of Jupiter





EDIT: Phil notes the image and also notes that it was a 6 millisecond (!) exposure.

great photo !