28 maart 2024

Maak kennis met de kleine maantjes van Pluto

Nix and Hydra

New Horizons heeft nieuwe foto’s doorgestuurd van de kleine Plutomaantjes Nix en Hydra. Bekijk ze goed, want betere opnames dan deze zullen we voorlopig niet te zien krijgen van de maantjes!

Charon, de grootste maan van Pluto, is massief genoeg om een barycentrum te delen met de dwergplaneet. Dat betekent dat Charon niet rondom Pluto draait, maar dat ze beiden rondom het gemeenschappelijke zwaartepunt draaien. Rondom dat zogenaamde barycentrum draaien nog eens vier kleine maantjes: Styx, Nix, Kerberos en Hydra. Deze meten allemaal minder dan 50 kilometer en hebben een onregelmatige vorm. Van die vier maantjes zijn Nix en Hydra ruimschoots de grootste.

pluto system orbits

Nix en Hydra zijn vlak voor de lancering van New Horizons ontdekt, nog in de tijd dat Pluto een planeet was. Hun initialen vormen een subtiel eerbetoon aan de ruimtesonde die jaren later de eerste redelijke foto’s van diezelfde maantjes zou gaan maken. Styx en Kerberos zijn pas ontdekt nadat New Horizons onderweg was – vandaar dat we weinig foto’s van deze maantjes zullen krijgen, omdat de primaire waarnemingsdoelen van de ruimtesonde toen al lang vastgesteld waren.

pluto family portret

Nix is de grootste van de kleine manen van Pluto en bevond zich bovendien het dichtste bij New Horizons tijdens de historische #PlutoFlyby. Vandaar dat we van Nix ruimschoots de beste foto’s verkregen hebben. Foto’s die vanuit verschillende kijkhoeken gemaakt zijn, hebben een asymmetrische, aardappelachtige vorm onthult. De eerste beelden hebben een ronde vorm laten zien, waarna de betrokken wetenschappers perplex stonden. Later bleek dat we precies tegen de lange as van Nix aangekeken hebben. Latere opnames hebben uitgewezen dat Nix, zoals verwacht, een onregelmatige vorm heeft.

three faces of nix

De opvallendste eigenschap van Nix is de enorme krater, die groot genoeg is om het maantje bijna verwoest te hebben. Wellicht heeft Nix dus geluk gehad, maar het zou ook kunnen dat het maantje een restant is van een grotere maan die wel aan stukken is geblazen door een inslag.

nix in colour

Hydra is de op

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  1. Adnan AlShawafi zegt

    This from my article in titled
    To NASA: I Approached NEW HORIZON through Math …But They Adopted Intuition Instead, thus, Sunset the Facts

    By: Researcher Adnan Alshawafi

    ……… Hence, I hope to bring light to NASA and the world: I refuted the conclusion assumed unduly by NEW HORIZON that there is nitrogen ice on Pluto because the flyby of the dwarf planet was closer to the perigee of its orbit around the sun. The temperature at this distance and low pressure will not allow the composition of nitrogen ice. The nitrogen would be in a gaseous state at this atmosphere. Note that the explanations that the dwarf planet’s atmosphere components including nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide were already monitored by the European Southern Observatory and published on Space.com in a 2009 article by Clara Moskowitz, entitled “Pluto’s Atmosphere Warmer Than Thought”.

    The team of New Horizon interpreted the flow of water ice without logical proof to find a unique discovery for the reclassification of Pluto as a planet. They may change their interpretation. I think it is better for them to hold off saying there exists water, as a result of the interaction of thermal decomposition of oxidative methane component of carbon monoxide by volcanoes and natural factors on the surface of Pluto. This  gives the relative difference of intensity of icy clouds compared to the nitrogen in the state of gaseous at atmosphere (we said icy clouds because the ice on Pluto becomes as a fog like air at Earth because of the low pressure on the surface of Pluto). So the clouds appear in abutting with the malformations and cracks on the surface, which made them believe the ice is flowing, and more importantly, that icy clouds cover malformations and cracks on the surface, which still made them believe Pluto is completely spherical.

    The limit of this dissertation is more than just explanations of the truth about Pluto and Charon. It is a presumption and proof that confirms the correct scientific approach and the strength of mathematics depended on to write my hypothesis “Compound balance balls,” article on National Yemen, where I managed to explain the cosmic phenomena logically and mathematically to find a way out of the two opposite conclusions. I had been studying the coordinates of Pluto and Charon and researched the regressive movement (vibratory movement) as indicated in my hypothesis and that the same movement which are described by New Horizon as a complex orbital dancing.

    On the ground, and by following scientific criteria of the dimensions and the coordinates released by the photos about Pluto and Charon, they still assert the complex orbital dance. Earlier I grasped complex orbital dance, where I had described it as a regressive (vibratory) movement according to the hypothesis in my book published in 2013 . So I confirmed an orbital dance  after an analysis of the coordinates of Pluto and Charon in previous photos taken from faraway distances and labeled by New Horizon as obscure pictures, because I did not imitate their optical analysis to understand those photos. The scientific explanation of orbital dance is a regressive movement, or a “vibratory movement” (disorder of the distance between Pluto and Charon back and forth and never moves in a regular elliptical orbit – so there are aphelion and perigee more than once per one orbital rotation of Charon around Pluto).

    So here is the reason of the disorder, in changing in distance, as a result of changing factors controlling the balance of the attraction force and the repulsion force between Pluto and Charon, according to my hypothesis that was published in my book in 2013 ” Hypothesis of compound balance factitious balls … an approach in astronomy”: ((An orb charged by the field of the gravity “magnetic attraction field” which is gained by the space due to the rotation around itself, and the magnetic field intensity is directly proportional with square root for the distance)) and: (( An orb which has a volume in space repulses against all similar other orbs which separate among the space, by the field of repulsion spread every direction and its effect according to the orbs surface area in all directions, it prorates reversely with square root for the distance)) – page 71 .

    Where the hypothesis is based on eight laws and eight new mathematical equations you can realize a mathematical analysis of the vibratory movement of orbs (compound orbital dance for Pluto and Charon), which is a result of the change in opposite surfaces between Pluto and Charon.  That means the perspective of Pluto’s surface from Charon is constantly changing. Also the perspective of Charon’s surface from Pluto is constantly changing. Therefore, conclude that Pluto and Charon cannot have completely spherical shape for the both of them.

    In other words, The constantly changing distance can also be attributed to the fact that the mass of Pluto or Charon is not concentrated in the body’s center. If we break it into halves, we will see that one half has larger mass than the other half by over 20% in proportion (5:4) , there is a presence of the deformation in the surface of Pluto or Charon. This explanation is developed following an in-depth study of the probabilities and on the applicable concepts.

    I also concluded the distance between Pluto center and the common center of gravity keeps constantly changing. So, the spiral route of Pluto’s center in its orbit around the sun does not have constant radius of its spiral route. The motion of Pluto’s center in its orbit around the sun draws a circle up to a radius of 3000 – 4000 km, but according to what we know i.e. 2100 km. It seems to us that Pluto’s motion around the factitious thing in the middle of its orbital spiral route around the sun , as a result of the compound balance system (binary system) for Pluto and Charon with the sun, accords to the hypothesis of compound balance factitious balls.

    The scientific efforts through individual or collective contributions establish humanitarian integration in the process of research, to understand the cosmic phenomena in a human activity based on sharing. Re-thinking Pluto as a full planet is a desperate attempt that may reflect itself on the reputation of NASA as an iconic global scientific institution. I think it’s time for NASA to reconsider the team of NEW HORIZON as being close to losing the historical feat of this mission because of individual partiality to re-classify Pluto as a full planet.

  2. days of our lives zegt

    Mooie plaatjes.
    Ik had begrepen dat er nog hogere resolutie foto’s zullen komen, of is dit het?
    En die andere maantjes, Kerberos en Styx, die laten nog op zich wachten?

    Steeds als ik nieuwe foto’s zie van New Horizons, heb ik het idee dat de flyby nog maar net achter de rug is. Toch is het alweer bijna 3 maanden geleden…

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