July 14, 2015

Well Done, JHUAPL!

Are you as excited as I have been about the New Horizons’ voyage to Pluto and beyond? I have been gripped by the whole thing and have been watching and waiting for each new update.image

It boggles one’s mind that this little space explorer, the size of a grand piano, has been travelling for more than nine years, over three billion miles and is still whirling through space. It’s also amazing to know that none of us alive now will ever see this thing happen again. There is no planet that we’ve not seen up close. The little New Horizons has zoomed by them and taken pictures.

To make things clearer (ha), this was the best picture we had of Pluto in May on the left and this is today, on the right. The “heart” that you see is about 1,000 miles across and sits just above Pluto’s equator.image

It is hard to fathom that it takes 4.5 hours for the data from New Horizons to travel the 3+ billion miles… it’s going at the speed of light.

Of course, there’s another reason I am so interested in this mission – the leader of it is the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, part of the massive Johns Hopkins educational and medical system, located right here in Baltimore. Actually, the APL is about 20 miles down the road, but everything else is here in Baltimore.

One really  lovely story associated with New Horizons is that in this tiny little space capsule were some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, who is credited with “discovering” Pluto in February of 1930. Some of Tombaugh’s children were at the APL today when New Horizons passed by Pluto. Such a fitting tribute that his ashes are now truly among the stars.image

Are you as interested in this whole thing as I have been? Do tell!

15 comments:

  1. I love this story - especially mulling over the time delay in getting the pictures back from this stellar adventurer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree, it is fascinating. No matter your age, it stirs up all the wonders of a child.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does! Makes you think of so much more than is happening here.

      Delete
  3. My father was a 40 year employee of APL, (we called it the "Lab"). He loved his work and always had interesting stories of the other projects taking place there. Our family is thrilled to see the positive press from this project!

    ReplyDelete
  4. No interest at all, sadly I guess, but have always adored little Pluto's "Little Engine that Could" persona. It'll always be a planet in my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It does renew those childhood memories of all of the space missions!!

    xoxo
    Karena
    The Arts by Karena
    Gratitude

    ReplyDelete
  6. i love this story also + childhood memories...xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been following it enthusiastically! Even watched the livestream of their press conference last night. Did you see that the Mission Operations Manager was a woman? Alice Bowman? Made the whole thing even better:). Go JHUAPL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And everyone calls her Mom! She's the mother of the mission! So proud of all of them!

      Delete
  8. If only Raj Kuthrapali the Astrophysist from the Big Bang Theory could have been there celebrating along with JHUAPL . In the movie Apollo 11 ( Houston we have a problem.) a scene from the movie where the nextworks are not televising the launch (so routine) the regularly scheduled program airing was I Dream of Jeannie ( if that was not poetic license I do not know what was)!
    If we can send craft and have a look see are other life forms doing the same?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading and commenting on Pigtown*Design. I read each and every comment and try to reply if I have your e-mail address.