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Astronomers take to Twitter to quell their Pluto fly-by nerves

NINE years of nervous tension certainly builds up. While the New Horizons probe sailed past Pluto, the world’s astronomers were biting fingernails and letting off steam on Twitter.

Jamie SeidelJamie Seidel
@JamieSeidel
less than 2 min read
July 15, 2015 - 11:22AM
News Corp Australia Network
Good boy! ... First sketched the same year the dwarf planet was discovered was Pluto the dog.
Good boy! ... First sketched the same year the dwarf planet was discovered was Pluto the dog.

NINE years of nervous tension certainly builds up. While the New Horizons probe sailed past Pluto, the world’s astronomers were biting fingernails and gnashing teeth — on Twitter.

It all came to a head during a long-telegraphed communications cut with the probe, which is some 4.7 billion kilometres away.

Nothing was unexpected.

It was supposed to shoot past the icy world at just 12,500km at some 84,000km/h.

And the navigation feat was similar to landing a golf ball in a hole-in-one shot from Brisbane to Perth.

Then there’s the other element of the waiting game: The four hour, 25 minute time it takes for a radio message to travel that far.

That means everything has already happened long before you get an opportunity to do anything about it.

So the scientists set about distracting themselves.

Many sought solace in Twitter.

If such a tense scenario was too tough to handle, astronomers had nine years to do something about it. Perhaps a slower approach? A higher-altitude pass? Or at least stock up on alcohol and munchies?

None of the above really serves the science, though (except perhaps the munchies).

Thus the long shot.

Among the shattered nerves and overwhelming relief is the realisation that history has been made.

Every object considered to be the Solar System’s primary worlds — and that includes the dwarf planet Ceres — have now been explored.

The first high resolution images produced in the fly-by — which will hold some 10 times the detail of the Pluto portrait beamed back yesterday — are due to start trickling in tomorrow.

Now our astronomers — used to a world of megabit and even gigabit internet streaming abilities — will have to contend with download speeds of just a few kilobits.

Not to mention the download errors incurred as the bits and bytes flash past obstacles — such as Jupiter.

That means more frustration ahead guys!

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/astronomers-take-to-twitter-to-quell-their-pluto-flyby-nerves/news-story/f34121234dc42c1ab18e8d377f1a3b3b