Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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Jupiter Flyby--in Cinerama
February 28, 2007 11:13 AM
Even rocket scientists have a sense of humor. 
Overnight the NEW HORIZONS spacecraft, on its way to Pluto, flew past Jupiter in a gravity-assist maneuver, and the project team, to mark the occasion, made what looks like a movie trailer.
If you have Quicktime working, take a look HERE.
It may be that they have to do this kind of thing. How else to reach younger people who are more into YouTube and texting than old-fashioned stuff like planets?
The ship is now moving away from the Sun (and us) at more than 50,000 miles an hour, going 9,000 mph faster because of the Jupiter flyby. Even so, it's still nine years (3,057 days) from Pluto.
What do you do with a probe on a decade-long mission? After it's sent back its Jupiter images, they'll mostly turn it off. They'll power systems back on once a year to make sure they're working.
Picture Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)
February 28, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (3)
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It's a great idea for NASA to use the same animations you news reporters often use to illustrate a story about what's happening in space, and NASA has always had such high-quality animations. If they attract people to the New Horizons website, or to other NASA sites, so much the better!
As an aside, aren't you dating yourself a bit when you refer to "Cinerama" in your title? I would've used "CinemaScope" because that optical process is still in general use and some people will still recognize it. But maybe that's just me.
Posted by: chuck | Feb 28, 2007 11:25:36 AM
Thank you, Chuck. Actually, I was trying to sound dated. NASA frets that it's not attracting new young techies (why should they toil on rockets when they can make a bundle on the web?), and the average age of a NASA staffer is close to 50. They, unlike their kids, may remember Cinerama.
As for me, I'm all digital.
Posted by: Ned Potter | Feb 28, 2007 3:28:29 PM
You're quite welcome, Ned. When I read your posting, I was immediately reminded of the Cole Porter song "Stereophonic Sound" which was sung by Janis Paige and Fred Astaire in the movie "Silk Stockings." In the song, they have lots of fun lampooning the various movie formats, including Cinerama, and my personal favorite because it just sounds so high-tech, VistaVision.
And congratulations on being all-digital. As for me, I'm bi-format, mostly digital but some analog. (Modesty prevents me from declaring which is which.)
Posted by: chuck | Mar 1, 2007 8:25:48 AM
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