Astronomers Predict That Pluto Has A Ring

MIT Technology Review ^ | 08-08-2011 | Staff

[Red Badger]

If it has a ring it must be a planet! Re-instate Pluto's Planetary Status NOW!.............

[Carl LaFong]

Congratulations.
My wishes for a long , happy marriage.

[massmike]

Pluto Has A Ring

He and Goofy are engaged?

[Peter from Rutland]

Eh. Who cares, it’s not a planet, right? If it was we’d have 11 or 12 planets now but that’s too inconvenient.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

By comparison, the main ring of Uranus has a transparency of between 0.5 and 2.5.

That's getting personal.

[Jack Hydrazine]

A ring around Uranus? Well I’ll be!!!!

[cripplecreek]

We’ll know in a couple of years.

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

[Army Air Corps]

Ping

[JRios1968]

...the main ring of Uranus has a transparency of between 0.5 and 2.5.

Hey, now!

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 8/08/2011. Thanks Red Badger.

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[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 8/08/2011. Thanks Red Badger. Another 'extra, extra' to the APoD list.

[Brett66]

This little planetoid has a lot of interesting things about it, it’s like a mini-Saturnian system.

[Future Snake Eater]

the main ring of Uranus has a transparency of between 0.5 and 2.5.

[rarestia]

So they’re using Hubble to get a view of Pluto, but the pictures leave much to be desired. I understand optics enough to understand how they could see so far away, but why couldn’t terrestrial multi-optic telescopes get a really clear view of Pluto from here? For that matter, why can’t Hubble or other high-powered scopes get better, closer, clearer views of planets in our solar system? It seems we’re creating scopes that can see farther and farther out, but we can’t get close-up, high-resolution images of plants in our own solar system.

[Red Badger]

They move.........

[rarestia]

They move.........

I don't buy that as an excuse. I made a stepping motor from scratch using parts from Radio Shack and created a mobile scope platform for my 14" light bucket and recorded two hours of video focused on Mars' transit through a clear winter night sky. It cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 to build.

You can't tell me that terrestrial scopes and/or orbital scopes couldn't do the same thing on a much more precise scale.

[Moonman62]

So they’re using Hubble to get a view of Pluto, but the pictures leave much to be desired.

After several thousand years of civilization, they are the best images ever acquired.

Pluto is difficult to image because it is small, very far away, and light intensity follows the inverse square law.

[Red Badger]

Terrestrial scopes have atmosphere as a limiting factor.
Hubble has a different limitation, it’s moving at 7500 meters per second..............

[rarestia]

Yeah, ya know I didn’t think about size. My apologies on that. Brain is a little fuzzy this morning.

[Moonman62]

Check out this baby. It will be able to resolve earth size planets around other stars.