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The New Horizons space probe provided amazing images of Jupiter and one of the planet's moons

During a long journey towards Pluto, the NASA New Horizons space probe took images of Jupiter and one of Jupiter's moons.  The probe revealed that small moons around Jupiter use their gravity to keep dust and assorted debris in Jupiter's rings, according to NASA scientists.  The U.S. space agency also collected a "very diverse and rich data set through this encounter," said Alan Stern, chief scientist on the New Horizons mission.

New Horizons also gave scientists the closest look they have had at Jupiter's "Little Red Spot" storm, which reportedly has the diameter of Earth and wind speeds up to 400 m.p.h.  Little Red Spot formed after three smaller storms merged together.

The New Horizons also took photographs of Io, one of Jupiter's largest moons.  Scientists believe Io is currently the most geologically active body in the Earth's solar system.  The probe recorded data of bright, glowing lava all over the moon's surface, along with spots of bright gas.  The Tvashtar volcano also was launching dust 200 miles above the moon's surface, which the New Horizons was able to photograph.
 
The piano-sized probe went within 1.4 million miles of Jupiter on Feb. 28.  The New Horizons used its seven cameras and sensors to help store more than 700 observations on digital recorders.  Researchers on Earth have received almost 75 percent of the 34 gigabits of information.

"We'll be analyzing this data for months to come," said Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator.

New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever launched, is still on its long journey to Pluto, with the craft arriving around 2015.  Researchers reported that using Jupiter's gravity helped save around three years of travel time to Pluto.

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Very Fast!!
By donttrustme on 5/2/2007 3:25:15 AM , Rating: 5
This probe is really fast, it was launched on January 19, 2006,
faster than voyager and galileo. New Horizon's speed is around 52,000 mph.

Good work NASA. I think we should all be proud of NASA for such an achievement.




RE: Very Fast!!
By nowayout99 on 5/2/2007 4:40:23 AM , Rating: 2
Holy cow. How do they get probes to go that fast anyway?


RE: Very Fast!!
By Xajel on 5/2/2007 5:28:38 AM , Rating: 4
by using the heat generated from a Pentium 4 Prescott CPU :D

just joking ;)

AFAIK, the rocket system is able to handle some 40000 KMH, that was from eraly 90, don't know about these days...
using any planet/moon gravity they can increase or decrease the speed of ship/rocket/probe, they let the planet/moon take them so this will increase the speed very much, but the path is not directly to the planet or moon, it's around it, so it will make a small round untill the speed of the probe it self escapes from planets gravity, while escaping the probe will loose some speed but the speed it already gain is much more than the speed it loosed...


RE: Very Fast!!
By Enoch2001 on 5/2/2007 7:06:00 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
by using the heat generated from a Pentium 4 Prescott CPU :D


LOL!


RE: Very Fast!!
By SmokeRngs on 5/2/2007 4:43:25 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
by using the heat generated from a Pentium 4 Prescott CPU :D


Actually, you're close. The real deal is that Io (the moon the probe took shots of) was Intel's secret testing ground for the Prescott. I will leave everyone to draw their own conclusions. :p


RE: Very Fast!!
By Freshgeardude on 5/2/2007 7:13:56 AM , Rating: 2
there is no force to stop them like we have gravity on earth. so it can go that fast


34 Gb?
By Goty on 5/2/2007 8:09:42 AM , Rating: 1
Why not just say a little over 4 GB?




RE: 34 Gb?
By JGriffin4 on 5/2/2007 8:27:09 AM , Rating: 2
"34Gb"... "A little over 4 GB" Which is easier to type. Quit whining.


RE: 34 Gb?
By Goty on 5/2/2007 2:21:17 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not whining, and you could just say 4.25 GB and be just as easy.


RE: 34 Gb?
By EODetroit on 5/2/2007 9:53:54 AM , Rating: 2
Nasa gave the info in gigabits, not gigabytes. If you use GB or Gb, people will assume its gigabytes, which would be misleading them. Better to just relay the info just as Nasa gave it.


RE: 34 Gb?
By deeznuts on 5/2/2007 2:11:48 PM , Rating: 2
These same people who see advertised internet speeds as megabit/kilobit all the time, right?

Anybody that cares, will notice the difference.


RE: 34 Gb?
By Goty on 5/2/2007 2:22:02 PM , Rating: 2
That was the point of the question. How often do you see data sizes represented in bits nowadays?


By WartHog369 on 5/8/2007 11:12:49 PM , Rating: 2
A byte is 'defined' as an 'ordered' grouping of bits in order to 'make' numbers and letters.

The data captured by the cameras: 'exposed pixels' is just a long series of bits. There are no numbers or letters to be relayed back to ET, therefore, the quantity of data is given in bits




"digital recorders"
By Lazarus Dark on 5/2/07, Rating: -1
RE: "digital recorders"
By Duwelon on 5/2/2007 7:28:33 AM , Rating: 2
I highly doubt they would put a hard drive in a space probe. I'd bet my money that most of the equipment has no moving parts.


RE: "digital recorders"
By tacorly on 5/2/2007 2:52:14 PM , Rating: 2
how could the thing have mostly no moving parts if its like... a robotic ship


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