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Pluto Probe Makes Discoveries at Jupiter

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wed Oct 10, 2007 08:18 AM
from the only-wears-red-spot-on-special-occasions dept.
Space
Riding with Robots writes "No, it's not an accident due to a metric-to-English-units error. In February, the New Horizons probe passed through the Jupiter system on its way to Pluto, and we saw some spectacular pictures. Now, the science teams have published detailed scientific results, along with new images and movies. The probe's instruments saw clouds form from ammonia welling up from Jupiter's lower atmosphere, and heat-induced lighting strikes in the polar regions, and fresh eruptions on the volcanic moon Io. New Horizons also captured the clearest images ever of the tenuous Jovian ring system, where scientists spotted clumps of debris that may indicate a recent impact inside the rings, or some more exotic phenomenon." I bet Neil DeGrasse Tyson will be on 7 Discovery channel specials talking about these new discoveries inside of the week. Hope he's nicer than he was to poor Pluto :)
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Submission: Pluto Probe Makes Discoveries at Jupiter by sighted (851500)
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  • Oblig (Score:3, Funny)

    by $RANDOMLUSER (804576) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @08:33AM (#20925601)
    All these worlds are yours.
    Except Europa.
    Attempt no landings there.

    • Re:Oblig (Score:5, Informative)

      by Phanatic1a (413374) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @08:53AM (#20925825)
      Did you catch a look at those Io shots?

      Jesus. We've sent, what, 5 probes close enough to get a look at Io, and every one of them saw significant vulcanism? Pretty safe bet then that it's erupting like that constantly, huge lakes of glowing lava and sulfur plumes 200 miles high.

      I'll take my chances with Europa.

        • Re:Oblig (Score:5, Informative)

          by locofungus (179280) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @09:07AM (#20926047)
          From the linked article:

          In addition, New Horizons spotted the infrared glow from at least 36 Io volcanoes, and measured lava temperatures up to 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit, similar to many terrestrial volcanoes.

          Tim.

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by volcanopele (537152)
            I should point out that the "at least 36 Io volcanoes" number comes from the LEISA instrument, a near-infrared detector on the New Horizons spacecraft and does not include the field of bright spots seen near the sub- and anti-Jovian points (the points on the surface of Io that point directly toward and away from Jupiter, respectively). These spots are likely caused by gases above volcanoes in this area excited by Jupiter magnetic field. They could still be active volcanoes, but their thermal emission is t

          • I'm going to solve the Earth's energy problem and get rich at the same time. All I need to do is build a trans-solar-system pipeline from that moon to the Earth to bring all of that beautiful methane here. Voila. No concerns for a very long time. As far as global warming goes, its a double win. Soon all of my Alaskan and Canadian beach front property on the northern shores will be prime warm vacation land. And to top it all off, I have a pipeline to attach a space elevator to to bring people up to the

  • money well spent (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2007, @08:40AM (#20925689)
    Whenever a camera is hurled near solar system big planets, it catches something interesting. We should establish permanent automatic research stations in orbit(s) of at least Jupiter, if not all of them. It is scientific treasure-trove.
    • This stuff is new only for us, otherwise it has been happening for millions of years.
      So, if a permanent automatic system was installed there, it would give us exactly the same day by day, year from year.
      • Actually, a research satellite in orbit around Jupiter would be useful for studying atmospheric processes there, which change on the order of days to decades.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by thsths (31372)
          > Actually, a research satellite in orbit around Jupiter would be useful for studying atmospheric processes there

          Ok, but who is going to listing to the Jupiter weather forecast? I would much rather have a reliable prediction for the weather right here during the week to come.
          • On the serious side, studying atmospheric phenomenon on other planets can give us a better understanding of our own weather.

      • Re:unlikely (Score:4, Interesting)

        by camperdave (969942) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @09:54AM (#20926739) Journal
        So, if a permanent automatic system was installed there, it would give us exactly the same day by day, year from year.

        Maybe it would, and maybe it wouldn't. We don't know. Does the vulcanism on Io go through seasonal variations? Does it only happen on Io, or are there other geologically active moons in orbit? The Cassini probe showed that we can park a satellite in orbit around these far planets, and obviously a permanently stationed device is going to give far more detailed data than one that's whizzing past. I think it's wasteful to launch these probes and have them leave the solar system when they could be inserted into orbit around a planet and give us years worth of useful data. As far as I know, apart from Earth, the only planets we have probes around are Mars and Saturn... and maybe Venus.

        • We did have a probe parked around Jupiter for a while. It was called Galileo [wikipedia.org]. It spent 8 years documenting Jupiter before it was decommissioned by sending it into the Jovian atmosphere.

        • I think it's wasteful to launch these probes and have them leave the solar system when they could be inserted into orbit around a planet and give us years worth of useful data. As far as I know, apart from Earth, the only planets we have probes around are Mars and Saturn... and maybe Venus.

          While I agree with the first part of your post about the value of long-term observation, the quoted part of the comment is much easier said than done, especially for such a distant target as Pluto. New Horizons will fl

    • Well, we already have something like that in the Cassini probe for Saturn. The issue with having a "permanent" research stations is lack of power. That far out, there is very little solar radiation, so power has to come from nuclear batteries, which have a limited lifespan.

    • Speaking of which, why don't probes ever have true color cameras? What's with all the false color images from probes?
      • I don't know, but I would suspect it would be due to the relatively low levels of light out there. Since there isn't an atmosphere in space to diffuse light and since there is less sunlight out there anyways, I would think that looking at Jupiter with a normal camera with normal coloration would be akin to looking at a model of Jupiter at night in your bedroom.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Tablizer (95088)
        Speaking of which, why don't probes ever have true color cameras? What's with all the false color images from probes?

        Most probes don't use the same kind of color capture technique that "house cameras" offer. They use filters. If you want color, you take images under different filters (select a given wavelength to "see" with). This increases the sensativey range. New Horizons is certainly capable of using many filters to produce color images, but it may have had to weigh different factors. For one, NH does

    • Re:money well spent (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rbanffy (584143) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @01:20PM (#20929877) Homepage
      Galileo was pretty much a "permanent" monitoring station, at least as far as space probes go. It was around Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 and gathered a whole lot of information. So is Cassini around Saturn and Mars has a good couple of them orbiting it.

      That said, I agree it would be clever to design and assemble generic space probes with a generic instrument package and launch them towards some promising targets. If we can assemble a dozen of simple probes (or modular ones - i.e. inner solar system solar power module x deep space RTG power, custom instrument packages) instead of one twelve times more complex and launch them towards interesting targets it would give us a lot of coverage on a lot of other nearby objects for the same price (and in far less time). If something turns out to be more than an uninteresting lump of rock or ice, we could always send another probe with a custom instrument package. And, if the original one still has propellant on board, it could always be re-missioned to something else.

      Maybe we could focus not on "Back to the Moon", "See Pluto" and "Probe Mars" specific projects and create a continuous exploration infrastructure that could serve us well for decades. If we focus too much on learning how to build a better spacecraft while building the spacecraft, the exploration becomes the least interesting thing in the project. If we focus more on the destination than on the vehicle, chances are we will get spacecrafts out to the launch pad on less time, within budget and more frequently than today. And by building more of them, launching more of them and testing more of them, we will end up learning just as much about how to build a better spacecraft.

      This one-off custom-designed space probe business can become costly real quick.
    • Permanent is a bit much. Sending new missions from time to time would be a good idea. Permanent is kind of like saying that the computer you buy today is the one you will use indefinitely. After a while, you don't get the returns as you used to.

      Science instruments improve at a rapid pace, and I think this is why New Horizons found things that Galileo did not.

      I think there is something going there in the 2010s that will replace the Galileo mission. It's going to have 10x the scientific payload, 10x the
    • A mission is now being planned to orbit Jupiter and study its weather and other features over a sustained period: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2005-090 [nasa.gov]
    • That is basically what the probes are albeit in a limited way. They cannot survive indefinitely because of the intense radiation in the space immediately around and out to a large distance of Jupiter. Even if the radiation problem could be solved, the orbit of Jupiter is too far out for solar panels to be very effective (i.e. extremely large area of panels would be needed) and nuclear batteries, while compact and long lasting, are none the less a finite energy resource. The current technology does not allow

  • And as a result of these new findings... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dpbsmith (263124) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @08:47AM (#20925759) Homepage
    ... the IAU has decided that Jupiter is not a planet.
  • Yes, but where's the monolith? It has the opening to the wormhole that leads to the solar system where we achieve enlightenment. It must be true, I saw it on TV.

  • I bet Neil DeGrasse Tyson will be on 7 Discovery channel specials talking about these new discoveries inside of the week.
    You know, if he would happen to disappear, a victim of foul play, and his body found long after the crime, the forensic people need to be thourough. If they want to determine when he died by looking at the amount of mold on the body they need to turn it over; DeGrasse is always greener on the other side.

  • All irreverance aside, fantastic stuff! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by decipher_saint (72686) on Wednesday October 10 2007, @09:40AM (#20926503) Homepage
    I mean, each paper sounds completely intriguing:

    Polar Lightning and Decadal-Scale Cloud Variability on Jupiter
    Kevin H. Baines, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    Io Volcanism Seen by New Horizons: A Major Eruption of the Tvashtar Volcano
    John R. Spencer, Southwest Research Institute

    Clump Detections and Limits on Moons in Jupiter's Ring System
    Mark R. Showalter, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute

    Jupiter Cloud Composition, Stratification, Convection & Wave Motion: A View from New Horizons
    Dennis C. Reuter, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

    Io's Atmospheric Response to Eclipse: UV Aurorae Observations
    Kurt D. Retherford, Southwest Research Institute

    Energetic Particles in the Jovian Magnetotail
    Ralph L. McNutt Jr., Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

    Diverse Plasma Populations and Structures in Jupiter's Magnetotail
    David J. McComas, Southwest Research Institute

    New Horizons Mapping of Europa and Ganymede
    William M. Grundy, Lowell Observatory

    Jupiter's Nightside Airglow and Aurora
    G. Randall Gladstone, Southwest Research Institute

    These are all highly fascinating subjects each worth a read let alone the fantastic gallery: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos.html [jhuapl.edu]

    I completely support the New Horizons team, they're doing amazing things from behind a computer screen. Something I honestly wish I could do.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Hatta (162192)
      So here's what I don't understand. They captured some beautiful images the fluid dynamics of gasses mixing in jupiter's atmosphere. How is it that these gasses can keep mixing and not reach equilibrium? I see the same schlieren patterns if I add some glycerol to some H2O and invert the tube a couple times. But invert it a little more and they're gone. What is jupiter doing to keep its atmosphere from doing the same? Are some of the gasses in its atmosphere immiscible or something?
  • I'm watching 'Passport to Pluto.... and Beyond' on the Science channel, they've been talking about the Jupiter flyby for the last five minutes or so. Interesting stuff. No... Dr. Tyson wasn't a part of the program. ;) It's towards the end, so if any of you have TSC, keep an eye out for it.
  • Are obviously a result of global warming. You can now understand the impact our cars have on the environment.

  • The Jupiter System? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Boronx (228853) <evonreis.mohr-engineering@com> on Wednesday October 10 2007, @11:50AM (#20928553) Homepage Journal
    Jupiter's not a system, he's a god ... a scoundrel. He'll smite you for calling him a system.
  • is the contrast between the amazing photos and sophisticated graphics and the Powerpoint 95 quality of the rest of the presentation. This slide (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/pictures/100907_pressGraphics/files/Stern/SternHi-Res/Stern_11.jpg [jhuapl.edu]) could almost be a cat macro.
  • Did the creators of this probe know of Pluto's demotion from planetary status at the time of its launch? Maybe they should just turn it around and bring it home.

    Nothing to see here. Move along.

    • It would have sounded a lot better if this were about Uranus:

      "In February, the New Horizons probe passed through Uranus system on its way to Pluto, and we saw some spectacular pictures. Now, the science teams have published detailed scientific results, along with new images and movies. The probe's instruments saw clouds form from ammonia welling up from Uranus's lower atmosphere, and heat-induced lighting strikes in the polar regions, and fresh eruptions on Uranus' moons. New Horizons also captured the c
    • You've been watching too many porn movies instead of reading more astrology magazines... or possibly vice versa.

      • ... instead of reading more astronomy magazines ...

        Ahem! There, fixed that for you.

        As any astronomer would tell you, mixing up the two is a capital offence.

    • All together now: yur-en-us - Uranus.
      • Interesting! I didn't know you could get urine out of Uranus.

        • Do you people have any idea how hard it is to teach astronomy when half the class snickers every time the 7th planet is mentioned?

          In light of the public's growing familiarity with anatomy and diminishing mental age, the IAU should rename Uranus.

          • Do you people have any idea how hard it is to teach astronomy when half the class snickers every time the 7th planet is mentioned?

            Just pronounce it YUR-uh-nus

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