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hypatia

Why go to pluto?

Quote:
Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is half the size of Pluto. The pair form a binary planet, whose gravitational balance point is between the two bodies. Although binary planets are thought to be common in the galaxy, as are binary stars, no spacecraft has yet explored one




Quote:
Pluto's atmosphere is escaping to space like a comet, but on a planetary scale. Nothing like this exists anywhere else in the solar system. It is thought that the Earth's original hydrogen/helium atmosphere was lost to space this way. By studying Pluto's atmospheric escape, we can learn a great deal about the evolution of Earth's atmosphere.




http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/overview/whyGo.html



The LORRI image (left) shows fine details on Io's sunlit crescent and in the partially sunlit plume from the Tvashtar volcano, and reveals the bright nighttime glow of the hot lavas at the source of the Tvashtar plume. The MVIC image (top right) shows the contrasting colors of the red lava and blue plume at Tvashtar, and the sulfur and sulfur dioxide deposits on Io's sunlit surface. The LEISA image shows that the glow of the Tvashtar volcano is even more intense at infrared wavelengths and reveals the infrared glow of at least 10 fainter volcanic hot spots on the moon’s nightside. The brightest of these, Amirani/Maui, which is visible to the lower right of Tvashtar, is less than 4% as bright as Tvashtar. All of these are long-lived hot spots that have been observed previously by the Galileo orbiter. Further analysis of the LEISA data will provide information on the volcanoes’ temperatures, and data on the sunlit crescent of Io will reveal details of Io's surface composition.



Thank you NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute for the use of your photo.
Andre

Wow, spectacular

Why all that volcanic activity?
billiards

Why go to Pluto? I'm sure there is a rich array of scientific discoveries to be made, however it seems an awfully long way to go, there would be (almost) no chance for sample return and only a limited amount of equipment would be able to be sent. I'm not sure if it would be the best use of money really, there must be other cheaper ways to study Pluto which may not be quite as revealing and satisfactory from a purely scientific stand point as actually going there, but would represent a far greater "bang for your buck".

EDIT: Better money would probably be spent studying some of Jupiter's moons, like Io, which has the spectacular volcanic activity in that lovely picture.
hypatia

From what I understand, it was never intended to return to earth. It will extend its self into the Kuiper Belt{the source of most of our comets}. These areas are known to have organic molecules and water, the building blocks of carbon based life.

I also fully agree about money spent in space programs Sad it could well be used in other ways. It is my only hope, that in some way it will help us to understand more about our delicate planet.
AstrumAspicio

hypatia wrote:
From what I understand, it was never intended to return to earth. It will extend its self into the Kuiper Belt{the source of most of our comets}. These areas are known to have organic molecules and water, the building blocks of carbon based life.

I also fully agree about money spent in space programs Sad it could well be used in other ways. It is my only hope, that in some way it will help us to understand more about our delicate planet.


How so? Exploration is what got us where we are today.

OTOH, I personally "flew" two of our interplanetaries from JPL - so I may be a bit biased. Smile
AstrumAspicio

billiards wrote:
Why go to Pluto? I'm sure there is a rich array of scientific discoveries to be made, however it seems an awfully long way to go, there would be (almost) no chance for sample return and only a limited amount of equipment would be able to be sent. I'm not sure if it would be the best use of money really, there must be other cheaper ways to study Pluto which may not be quite as revealing and satisfactory from a purely scientific stand point as actually going there, but would represent a far greater "bang for your buck".

EDIT: Better money would probably be spent studying some of Jupiter's moons, like Io, which has the spectacular volcanic activity in that lovely picture.


Cheaper ways to get to pluto? Not hardly. One of my best buds on the planet is a lead scientist on that program. These robotic programs are far more productive (bang for the buck) than even the ISS.
Andre

Hi AstrumAspicio,

Welcome to our modest little community, attempting to fallacy-free wondering about what's going on. i hope you stay tuned. I plan to unfold our unorthodox view on Venus in a while. I'll post the lead in today. Could be interesting to discuss that.

But back on track, I for one would be extremely interested in the mechanims of that volcanism out there. It seems that there is a lot to solve.
billiards

Andre wrote:
Hi AstrumAspicio,

Welcome to our modest little community, attempting to fallacy-free wondering about what's going on. i hope you stay tuned. I plan to unfold our unorthodox view on Venus in a while. I'll post the lead in today. Could be interesting to discuss that.

But back on track, I for one would be extremely interested in the mechanims of that volcanism out there. It seems that there is a lot to solve.


Are you sure that Pluto has volcanism?
Andre

[quote="billiards"]
Andre wrote:

Are you sure that Pluto has volcanism?


Oops I see it's about Io. My bad.
AstrumAspicio

Andre wrote:
Hi AstrumAspicio,

Welcome to our modest little community, attempting to fallacy-free wondering about what's going on. i hope you stay tuned. I plan to unfold our unorthodox view on Venus in a while. I'll post the lead in today. Could be interesting to discuss that.

But back on track, I for one would be extremely interested in the mechanims of that volcanism out there. It seems that there is a lot to solve.


Thanks for the welcome!! Very Happy

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