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?

[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!

[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.

[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!"

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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/

[Argos]

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

[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".

[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.

[Saluki]

Nice pic, far better than I expected at this distance.

[Grand_Lunar]

Got Io and Europa in the image too, crossing the planet.

No red spot, though.

[Nicolas]

2015, wow and it felt as if it was already flying for so long...

But this is nice eyecandy in the meantime!

[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.

[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)

[Jakenorrish]

The pic of Jupiter looks very impressive. A nice aperitif for what's to come with any luck. I'm still realing from the fact that it'll get there in a year. I sure as heck wouldn't want to be standing in the way of NH!!!!