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Posted

Ok, I'll try to post something good, 11.

 

I've been asked to be on the board of directors at the horse rescue I volunteer at. That makes me the youngest member by, oh... 25 years or so.  We're desperately in need of funds so they think I can art our way out of it with good design/better formatting on flyers and stuff. But still, hell of an honor to be able to have more influence on an organization that means so much to me. 

 

Other good news? In one hour it's no longer Monday? Yeah. That's pretty good news. 

Posted

Ok, I'll try to post something good, 11.

 

I've been asked to be on the board of directors at the horse rescue I volunteer at. That makes me the youngest member by, oh... 25 years or so.  We're desperately in need of funds so they think I can art our way out of it with good design/better formatting on flyers and stuff. But still, hell of an honor to be able to have more influence on an organization that means so much to me. 

 

Other good news? In one hour it's no longer Monday? Yeah. That's pretty good news. 

ya monday and the horse it rode in on. tuesday here we come. grats on the honor.

Posted

Awesome: the third gallon of paint and coat on the basement floor appears to be the right color.

 

Bought a gallon some time ago to paint. I use one of those red spout things on the can so the original lid is long gone (the red spout thing is legitimately awesome). I was sure that it was the dark brown in the brochure, MrsPie wasn't so sure but chose to believe me. It wasn't even close; that's gallon one. Since we couldn't find the original paint color (even looking in our purchase history), we chose to get it matched. The match was pretty good but not perfect; that's gallon two. While we were debating whether anyone would notice or if we should paint the entire basement again, we found the original paint chip.  :censored:  MrsPie ran out to get the right color today (gallon three) and I have a coat down, waiting to see if it needs another.

 

Anyone need 1/2 gallon of latex floor paint? I have 2 colors in stock.

Posted

I think it's pretty amazing that the probe got there in just nine years.

 

Also, how long ago was the photo taken?  I know it was published just moments ago, but, even assuming NASA published it the instant it received it, wouldn't the photo have to be from yesterday or even Sunday?

Posted (edited)

I think it's pretty amazing that the probe got there in just nine years.

 

Also, how long ago was the photo taken?  I know it was published just moments ago, but, even assuming NASA published it the instant it received it, wouldn't the photo have to be from yesterday or even Sunday?

 

I believe we're going to get more even better pictures. I'm a little confused on the timeline, but essentially New Horizons right now is taking in as much data as physically possible, including taking pictures. Sometime this afternoon/evening its going to send a little "Hey, still alive" message back to NASA, then go back to taking in data. At some point it will start sending all of that back to us, including some highres photos. That's assuming, of course, that it IS still alive. I think it takes quite a while to send back the data; I know it takes four minutes to get and receive stuff from Mars, and can only imagine how long to get to pluto.

 

 

EDIT: Did some quick googling, we're between 2.66 and 4.67 Billion miles from Pluto at any given point, which translates to between 4 and 7 light hours away. Not sure where we're at now, but any pictures we get are at least 4 hours old.

Edited by sabills
Posted

I believe we're going to get more even better pictures. I'm a little confused on the timeline, but essentially New Horizons right now is taking in as much data as physically possible, including taking pictures. Sometime this afternoon/evening its going to send a little "Hey, still alive" message back to NASA, then go back to taking in data. At some point it will start sending all of that back to us, including some highres photos. That's assuming, of course, that it IS still alive. I think it takes quite a while to send back the data; I know it takes four minutes to get and receive stuff from Mars, and can only imagine how long to get to pluto.

 

 

EDIT: Did some quick googling, we're between 2.66 and 4.67 Billion miles from Pluto at any given point, which translates to between 4 and 7 light hours away. Not sure where we're at now, but any pictures we get are at least 4 hours old.

 

Yeah, but there's no way NASA's signal from the probe travels at the speed of light, right?

Posted

Yeah, but there's no way NASA's signal from the probe travels at the speed of light, right?

It does.

 

I forget. Does Pluto have full planet status again?

Posted

Radio waves travel at the speed of light.

 

Then how come I hear radio, not see it?

 

 

(KIDDING.)

 

 

Thanks for the information though.  I probably knew that once--a LONG time ago.

Posted (edited)

Yeah, but there's no way NASA's signal from the probe travels at the speed of light, right?

 

I just watched a press conference.  At its low speed it is sending back 1000 bits per second. At its high speed, 4000.  That photo was taken yesterday and downloaded overnight.  The craft has all of its instruments trained on Pluto with its antenna pointed at the planet.  Tonight at 9p, it will turn around and cycle two times through its telemetry and communications data (~20m).  It will then resume scanning the planet.  It will take them 16 months to download all the data.

 

They also said, without the gravity assist from Jupiter, it would have taken four more years.  They were under the gun to complete the craft in 2006 so as not to miss the Jupiter window. 

 

Pretty amazing.  The photos coming down in the next few days will bring in much higher resolutions.

 

Another interesting fact.  The planet was bigger than they expected.  So they hit their box but were off by 70km (planet was bigger, so closer) in 3 billion miles.

Edited by wjag
Posted

Yes, pretty much all electromagnetic radiation travels at the speed of light.

 

Now that (and the probe and the photos) is pretty awesome, as is the other wisdom that gets dropped around here with a high degree of frequency.

Posted

Now that (and the probe and the photos) is pretty awesome, as is the other wisdom that gets dropped around here with a high degree of frequency.

Something cool to see as well, radio was invented around 200 years ago. So anything within 200 light years of Earth, if they had the equipment, could listen to our radio shows. But our galaxy is so massive, here's how small of an area that really is:

rad.jpg

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