Solar System Questions

[bushiri2005]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_planets_041201.html<br />http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_041122.html <br /><br />I Just read these most intresting articles. If we want to explore the Kuyperbelt and Oortcloud, would new telescopes like Herschel or JWST make the difference?<br />Should we reach the edge of Oortcloud with solar sail technology? Are there even faster ways?

 

[CalliArcale]

Herschel or JWST could help in imaging KBOs and the like. They're still hard to see; even Pluto is pretty blurry on Hubble images. Ground-based observatories, such as the Keck inferometer, may also be very useful. The main problem is that they're usually too busy doing other things to do random searches for unknown KBOs, so they're stuck observing ones that have been spotted by other, generally much smaller and less capable scopes. But that's not so bad, really.<br /><br />Getting to the Oort Cloud....<br /><br />Solar sails probably won't be very useful. These will diminish in potency the further you get from the Sun (as the solar wind diminishes) and will be useless past the heliopause, where the solar wind runs out. Nuclear-powered ion drives are a very promising option; these are relatively cheap, use entirely existing technology, and are very efficient.<br /><br />The first mission targeted intentionally at the Kuiper Belt is New Horizons (a smaller mission based on the cancelled Pluto/Kuiper Express). It is targeted primarily at Pluto, but will hopefully go on to study Kuiper Belt Objects. It is using conventional chemical rocket propulsion and gravity assist maneuvers, like the Voyagers. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[spaceman186000mps]

I'm fascinated by Sedna and Quaor and other Kuiper belt objects.<br /><br />I just wonder why Sedna is so red and is it's mass way more than suspected?<br /><br />http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/KuiperBelt/Quaoar.html<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff">70 percent of novel proceeds </font></strong><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff">www.trafford.com/06-1593</font></strong><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff"> are donated to </font></strong><strong><font size="2" color="#3366ff">www.caringbridge.org</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[bushiri2005]

I think I am fascinated too. Great to hear about the New Horizon mission. <br /><br />Did Our Sun Capture Alien Worlds?<br />http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=sciastro&Number=102189&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

 

[alokmohan]

Possibly we know too little about solar system to say such things.But talk is going on for a long time.We dont know what is sedna so clearly .