New Horizons shoots a movie
In anticipation of its fly of Pluto next year, the New Horizon spacecraft has produced a 12 frame movie showing Pluto’s moon Charon circling the planet.
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In anticipation of its fly of Pluto next year, the New Horizon spacecraft has produced a 12 frame movie showing Pluto’s moon Charon circling the planet.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
What I find really cool about this movie is that you can see Pluto wobble in response to the gravitational tug of Charon as the latter orbits around its host planet. (I refuse to add “minor.) This is readily apparent because the mass of Charon is substantial relative to Pluto. It’s one method (wobble) used to detect extrasolar planets, although I believe the light dimming method is preferred. Bob, please correct me if I’m wrong.
A couple of decades ago, before extrasolar planets were being discovered, I went to a talk about methods to find them. Each method had its disadvantages.
Occultation (dimming) required that the target solar system (or at least the planet’s orbital plane) be edge-on to our line of sight. Thus, I was surprised at the large number that Kepler seems to have found.
Doppler (wobble) would likely find many planets, but their mass would be difficult to determine, as the wobble would be reduced due to the angle of the orbital plane relative to the line of sight. Thus, all that could be determined was a planet’s minimum possible mass.
Direct observation would have been the preferred method, but the range for distinguishing a planet from its star was short, limiting this method only for nearby stars.