# Pluto Probe on it's way **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 19, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695 "2006-01-19T19:08:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/181 "2016-03-05T04:20:14Z")
Is Pluto’s atmosphere thick enough that a probe could aerobrake into orbit? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/182 "2017-07-24T04:15:07Z")
Bump! In order to find out more about 2014 MU69, NASA used Hubble data to predict the occultation of a very faint star by MU69 that would only be visible from a remote location in Argentina. [The observation makes for a rather charming story.](http://www.popsci.com/new-horizons-next-target) “We had to go up to farmers’ doors and say ‘Hi, we’re here from NASA, we’re wondering if we can set up telescopes in your back pasture?’” Parker says. “More often than not people were like ‘that sounds awesome, sure, we’ll help out!’” [They appear to have captured some significant data.](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2017/07/19/nasas-new-horizons-team-strikes-gold-in-argentina) Though, I’d have to say that if you can predict that the starlight shadow of an object 6.5 billion km away will pass over a specific part of Argentina and then have that turn out to be correct, you’ve obviously already got a pretty good handle on its orbital position. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/183 "2017-07-24T06:33:15Z")
That’s quite a story. Whole communities turned our their lights and stopped traffic in order to help. Maybe I’m being cynical, but imagine trying to do that in the U.S. People would be complaining about an overbearing government, and outsiders would probably show up and shine lights just to be assholes. Yet in Argentina they cooperated with a _foreign_ government. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/184 "2017-07-24T14:07:55Z")
Be sure to let us know when the probe gets there. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/185 "2017-07-24T15:12:32Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > I’d have to say that if you can predict that the starlight shadow of an object 6.5 billion km away will pass over a specific part of Argentina and then have that turn out to be correct, you’ve obviously already got a pretty good handle on its orbital position. They might have been confident of the occultation path but not the to-the-second timing. Direct observation always helps narrow the error bars. P.S. the angular diameter of the background star must be astonishingly tiny indeed if a minor body _billions_ of miles away will completely occlude it. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/186 "2017-07-25T02:28:12Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Be sure to let us know when the probe gets there. Where, Uranus? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Pippers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b5a626/32.png) [@Pippers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pippers)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/187 "2017-07-25T04:40:13Z")
This thread is the greatest of all time! In years to come alien space probes will read these pages and send the data back to their base. Live long and prosper. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/188 "2017-07-25T05:23:52Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > That’s quite a story. Whole communities turned our their lights and stopped traffic in order to help. > > Maybe I’m being cynical, but imagine trying to do that in the U.S. People would be complaining about an overbearing government, and outsiders would probably show up and shine lights just to be assholes. > > Yet in Argentina they cooperated with a _foreign_ government. Because its not the government and politics. Its science. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/189 "2017-07-25T06:01:02Z")
One vowel makes a difference. “We’re from NASA and we’d like to use your property for a while to make some observations.” Why sure, stranger, let me know how I can help. “We’re from NSA and we’d like to use your property for a while to make some observations.” Run shrieking into the night! ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2017, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/190 "2017-07-25T08:05:51Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Because its not the government and politics. Its science. Yes, but in the US everything is politics these days; science, food, religion, music, holiday greetings… everything. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/191 "2017-07-26T01:52:04Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Where, Uranus? > > Regards, > Shodan Hey, if I can wait nine years for it to get to Pluto, he should have no trouble waiting a few years for it to get to 2014 MU69. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/192 "2017-07-26T16:49:04Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Hey, if I can wait nine years for it to get to Pluto, he should have no trouble waiting a few years for it to get to 2014 MU69. Which really ought be officially named since it’s going to be much better documented than many other Kuiper objects. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2017, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/193 "2017-07-30T08:30:51Z")
Here I was thinking, “Didn’t we already have a probe at Pluto? I mean, they discovered moons and everything…” ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2017, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695/194 "2017-07-31T08:24:37Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Or wait for Berkeley Breathed to start drawing cartoons again. Couldn’t resist dragging this one up out of the dust. How’s life for you these days? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pluto-probe-on-its-way/340695.md?page=9)