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Space NASA

Craters Pop As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres 52

Posted by timothy from the ready-for-their-closeup dept.
astroengine writes New features on Ceres' icy surface are popping into view as NASA's Dawn spacecraft slowly spirals in on its final celestial target in the asteroid belt. Due to arrive in a stable Ceres orbit in March, the ion drive-propelled spacecraft is now less than 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from its ultimate goal. Once arrived at Ceres, NASA will insert the probe into a highly stable orbit where, when the mission concludes in a year from now, Dawn will become a permanent man-made moon of the dwarf planet.
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Craters Pop As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres More

Craters Pop As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres

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  • Bastardation of English continues (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Craters "pop"? I was expecting some kind of explosion, not a careless misuse of an English phrase. (Hint: The phrase you are looking for is "pop up" or "pop into view", i.e. the verb "pop" is NOT a synonym for "appear".)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I assumed the craters just had great style sense..

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yet you seem to know exactly what they meant.

      Funny how language changes over time. Even Ye Olde English!

      • Yet you seem to know exactly what they meant.

        Funny how language changes over time. Even Ye Olde English!

        The headline had me thinking the craters were popping.
        They are not popping.

      • Re:Bastardation of English continues (Score:4, Insightful)

        by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Thursday February 05, 2015 @03:56PM (#48992637)

        Actually, no, I had no idea what they meant until I got down into the comments. I assumed that craters were actually popping and was reading the summary trying to figure out if they were just observing some recurring natural phenomenon or if (far less likely) the probe itself was disrupting something on the surface.

        "You know what I meant" is a terrible excuse because half the time it's simply not true.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by gsslay ( 807818 )

        Except I didn't know exactly what they meant. I thought it was indicating the discovery of some kind of volcanic activity. I have never heard or seen "pop" used alone in place of of "pop into view" or even "pop up".

        There's a big difference between language change and single instances of rotten use.

    • There appears to be a character limit in what can be posted in the headli

      • There appears to be a character limit in what can be posted in the headli

        Craters Pop As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres
        Craters Seen As NASA'S Dawn Probe Nears Ceres

        The 2nd would have been both more accurate and shorter.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aaron4801 ( 3007881 )
      1 a : to go, come, or appear suddenly —often used with up [merriam-webster.com]. Often, but not exclusively. If you're going to be a grammar nazi, at least be right.
    • You're being overly semantic. "Pop" in that context is indeed a modern idiom, a shortening of "pops out", often used to describe an HDTV picture, where the factory sets the color and contrast extra high on TVs so the picture just "pops" on the store display floor. Sort of a 3D-ish effect, or extremely vivid.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dfm3 ( 830843 )
      I first thought they were just going for an attention-grabbing headline. "You won't BELIEVE what these craters DID as this NASA probe approached!"

    • Bastardation? I think you mean bastardization.

      You're not helping.

    • That's not all:

      Once arrived at Ceres, NASA will insert the probe into a highly stable orbit

      Beware the dangling participle. The above phrase implies that NASA will arrive at Ceres, not the probe.

    • The summary uses it appropriately. Only the headline gets it wrong, but headlines have twisted the language for a few hundred years now.

  • I REALLY hope this yield something of importance to bring space back to the forefront of people minds. Keep people dreaming, exploring and wanting more.

    • Would we be so fortunate as to do so this quickly, though? 600 some odd years ago, almost no one was aware of the full extent of the planet's land masses, much less that there were actual people living on those other land masses. After that settled down, not a lot happened for the next several hundred years in terms of advancement of human life's extent and discovery of new civilizations. Then, suddenly, in the 60s, we're extraplanetary.

      It would be amazing, but unlikely IMHO, to see a single generation of p

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We'll not find aliens on Ceres. Unless they are hiding under ground in cities.

      The most likely places we will find active life are Titan, Europa.
      Both of these planets have heavily life-bearing conditions, namely flowing liquid and stresses caused by a large planet tearing on its surface.
      Chance of intelligent life? Unlikely. It could happen though. We have quite intelligent life in our seas.
      In fact, Europa might technically even be a more stable environment for life than even EARTH is. Earth is a hostile

  • how about...Craters Explode As NASA's Dawn Probe Approaches Ceres

  • on to those craters? Come on timothy, you could've worked it in somehow... ;)

  • Dawn will become a permanent man-made moon of the dwarf planet.

    That's no space station...that's a moon!

  • It takes roughly 1 month for 145.000 km? That's roughly ~210 km/h (130mph) which seems very slow (for a spacecraft). The spacecrafts usually travel at least a few kilometers per second.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's all about relative speed... Dawn is travelling at several km/s relative to the Sun, but only ~100 mph relative to Ceres. It wants to get into a stable orbit around a dwarf planet with weak gravity, that would never happen if it was travelling at several km/s relative to Ceres!

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