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enigma
PF Advisor
USA
1016 Posts |
 Posted - 02/27/2003 : 01:02:29
New Horizons missionGood news! enigma "Life is the crummiest book I've ever read. There isn't a hook; just a lot of cheap shots, pictures to shock, and characters an amateur would never dream up."
-Bad Religion
Stranger than Fiction
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drag
Visible Light Wave
USA
849 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2003 : 00:06:28
Greetings !Actually, I'm not sure this is such great news.
There isn't much to see on Pluto.
But, as far as I understood from a number of
reports the funding for this mission came instead
of funding for a Europa mission. And, potentially,
Europa is a LOT more intresting since it could have
life in its "undersurface" ocean. Live long and prosper.
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Edited by - drag on 03/01/2003 09:40:24
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LURCH_001
Visible Light Wave
USA
588 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2003 : 01:21:45
quote:
Originally posted by drag:
Greetings !Actually, I'm not sure this is such great news.
There isn't much to see on Pluto.
That's exactly what they said about Europa, before they sent a probe and saw it. Why do they call it a FIXED income, when I'm always BROKE ?!
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drag
Visible Light Wave
USA
849 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2003 : 09:26:46
Greetings !
quote:
Originally posted by LURCH_001:
That's exactly what they said about Europa, before they sent a probe and saw it.
I'm not sure they ever said that.
Further more, there was never a mission to that moon.
It was primarily surveyed by Galileo as it orbits Jupiter,
but there was no detailed and specific exploration of it.
In addition, there's a chance of finding very primitive
active life forms on Europa. Europa has additional energy
sources to allow for a liquid "underice" ocean to exist in
which life can thrive. These are the friction caused by the
gravitational pull of Jupiter and that planet's magnetic field.
Pluto, doesn't have those additional energy sources and it
recieves less than 1 watt per square meter of energy from
the sun on its lighted side.
Hence, great chances are that it is just a huge dirty iceberg.
And the other Kuiper-belt objects that this mission may find
are also probably just that. They are also several times further
away from us.
Now, which do you find more worthy of exploration if you had
to choose between them ?Live long and prosper.
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Edited by - drag on 03/01/2003 09:36:33
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LURCH_001
Visible Light Wave
USA
588 Posts |
Posted - 03/01/2003 : 13:10:46
It's true, before the Voyager series, it was agreed by the entire scientific comunity that the moons of the outer planets must be completely dormant. They are too far away from the Sun, and cannot have enough energy to "do anything". Essentially, we were certain that they could not be anything but small balls of frozen gasses. All of those interesting things we now know about Europa were simlpy assumed to be impossible, untill we took a look at it.Pluto is the only planet in our solar system that is still a big blank question-mark. Heck, we don't even know wether or not to call it a planet! It may have a gasseous atmosphere at this time in its orbit, this may become frozen solid surface when it is farther out. It has one moon, but we susupect it may have more. Does it have a magnetic feild? Does it have a metallic core? Does it weather? We know virtually nothing about it but that it exist. If we learned anything from Europa, it's the danger of assuming there's "nothing interesting to see" in a place we haven't yet looked. A mission to get a closer look may reveal things just as interesting as the fly-bies of the gas giants. Or at the very least, it would reveal that there really isn't anything much to see. It's the not "knowing anything at all" that I find intollerable! Why do they call it a FIXED income, when I'm always BROKE ?!
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Edited by - LURCH_001 on 03/01/2003 13:15:14
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Nicool002
X-Ray Wave
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2003 : 16:36:12
Actually drag you ar emostly wrong. Europa although viewed from a distance picture wise has been watched closely with radio and observatory telescopes and i beilieve they did send a probe in closer when it was discovered. They will be watching it even CLOSER now because there is a theory that might be prove correct. This theory states how it is clearly possible that life exists on Europa.This is GREAT NEWS! It says after going to pluto it will continue into the Kuiper belt but what then? will it keep going in search of other things or will we have it turn back? Place your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour, sit next to a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute, that's Relativity. -Albert Einstein
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drag
Visible Light Wave
USA
849 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2003 : 17:45:30
Greetings !
quote:
Originally posted by Nicool002:
Actually drag you ar emostly wrong. Europa although viewed from a distance picture wise has been watched closely with radio and observatory telescopes and i beilieve they did send a probe in closer when it was discovered. They will be watching it even CLOSER now because there is a theory that might be prove correct. This theory states how it is clearly possible that life exists on Europa.
There was never a space probe mission to Europa. Distant
observation is no match compared with such a mission.
That is where you are wrong. Except that, I see nothing
wrong about what either of us said. I said the part about life
as well. And the potential for LIFE is exactly why I would prefer
that a mission be sent to Europa. The reality of the situation,
however, is that it's not possible to fund both missions and the
"Pluto Express" was chosen.
quote:
Originally posted by Nicool002:
This is GREAT NEWS! It says after going to pluto it will continue into the Kuiper belt but what then? will it keep going in search of other things or will we have it turn back?
The plan, as I read it, is to let the spacecraft pass near Pluto
and continue to the Kuiper belt.Live long and prosper.
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Edited by - drag on 03/07/2003 18:06:44
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Phobos
PF Mentor
USA
1417 Posts |
Posted - 03/07/2003 : 18:09:19
Let's go to Pluto AND Europa!!  If I had to choose, as drag suggests, then I'd choose Europa as it is more likely to be more interesting. But then again, Pluto is about to get less interesting soon (as it goes into its Winter and its atmosphere freezes out for the next 100-200 years or whatever...whereas Europa maintains a constant and easier-to-reach interest). But still, Europa is key. quote:
Originally posted by Nicool002:
Europa although viewed from a distance picture wise has been watched closely with radio and observatory telescopes
Technically, that's still a view from a distance. quote:
and i beilieve they did send a probe in closer when it was discovered.
What? The moon itself? (discovered in 1610!)
The Voyager probes had a quick look at Europa. The ongoing (nearly done) Galileo probe had some great views of Europa. I'm not sure if the ongoing Cassini probe got much more than a distant shot of it. I'd have to check. quote:
They will be watching it even CLOSER now because there is a theory that might be prove correct. This theory states how it is clearly possible that life exists on Europa.
Well, there the hypothesis that Europa could have/had life. NASA (and we all) hope to send a probe there to check it out up close. (lander that drills through the icy surface?) quote:
This is GREAT NEWS! It says after going to pluto it will continue into the Kuiper belt but what then? will it keep going in search of other things or will we have it turn back?
Probably keep going and keep sending back data of that distant region of the solar system (much to be learned there) until the probe breaks down.
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In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature. (from Sagan's "Contact")
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