These people are willing to throw away common understandings of the laws of physics, propagation of light, and gravity. Why would they have trouble explaining away part of the night sky that most of them will never see?
You can’t fight these people with truth.
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”
—Swift.
Was reading year in review in space and they brought up the Tesla launched by the Falcon Heavy. What I’m wondering is how in the world did they balance that thing? While most satellites are designed to be rather symmetric making it easier on the rocket gimbals, well a Tesla - that’s all kinds of uneven mass distribution.
Good question - I wouldn’t be shocked if it wasn’t much of the original Tesla underneath. Pull out the engine and other guts and you can fill it with whatever.
Couple of exciting things happening today 👉
Seems excessive to send another satellite out there just to snap that picture of New Horizons flying by a rock.
At the weekend, Chinese state media said the probe had entered an elliptical path around the Moon, bringing the vehicles to within 15km (9 miles) of the lunar surface at its closest point.
Authorities have not specified the exact time of the attempt to touch down in the Von Kármán crater. But a report in the state-run China Daily newspaper suggests Chang’e-4 could begin descending on its thrusters sometime from 2-3 January.
I hope they get good science from this. As cool as the further solar objects are, there is still much to learn about the moon.
Also, this.
I’ve been waiting for this ever since Pluto’s time in the spotlight, when they announced this target.
The new data from Nasa’s spacecraft also shows just how dark the object is. Its brightest areas reflect just 13% of the light falling on them; the darkest, just 6%. That’s similar to potting soil, said Cathy Olkin, the mission’s deputy project scientist.
It has a tinge of colour, however. “We had a rough colour from Hubble but now we can definitely say that Ultima Thule is red,” added colleague Carly Howett.
“Our current theory as to why Ultima Thule is red is the irradiation of exotic ices.” Essentially, its surface has been “burnt” over the eons by the high-energy cosmic rays and X-rays that flood space.
And now they just need to find a new target:
What does New Horizons do next?
First, the scientists must work on the Ultima data, but they will also ask Nasa to fund a further extension to the mission.
The hope is that the course of the spacecraft can be altered slightly to visit at least one more Kuiper belt object sometime in the next decade.
New Horizons should have just enough fuel reserves to be able to do this. Critically, it should also have sufficient electrical reserves to keep operating its instruments into the 2030s.
Soundtrack to the news article
That is very cool.
Far out, man!
Cool pic - Earth and Moon are in the lower left. Bennu the asteroid is the large bright object (due to long exposure time).
Speaking of New Horizons and soundtracks, Brian May is my hero.
I missed the 1st airing (Jan 2) - NOVA’s New Horizons show is excellent