Plutopalooza participants celebrate the arrival of NASA spacecraft New Horizons to the Pluto system. Photograph by Keiron Smith
Close to 100 people from all over Toronto converged at 91亚色 to celebrate an historic moment in space exploration when two undergrads organized Plutopalooza.
The event, held July 14, celebrated the arrival of NASA spacecraft New Horizons to the Pluto system and marked the finale of a 9.5-year-long journey. Launched in 2006, New Horizons ventured some 4.8 billion kilometres into the outer reaches of the solar system to unveil the planet鈥檚 system, and fits the last missing piece into the puzzle of our solar system.
Undergraduate students Sophia Nasr and Atifa Syed of 91亚色 U鈥檚 Astronomy Club organized Plutopalooza to celebrate the arrival of New Horizons to the Pluto system and our first ever up-close look at the planet.
Team Plutopalooza organizers: Christopher Lansdale, Armita Jalooli, Sophia Nasr, Atifa Syed, Ishfaaq Muhammad Jookhun, Susan Chen and Kevin Nikelski. Photograph by 聽Nikolaos Balaskas
During the event 91亚色 U astronomy Professor Pat Hall discussed the synchronous orbit of Pluto and Charon, which he called the 鈥渄ouble planet鈥, and space science Professor John Moores shed light on Pluto鈥檚 topology and atmosphere.
Live coverage of the mission streamed on NASA TV showed team scientists on tenterhooks as viewers awaited the spacecraft to 鈥減hone home鈥 and confirm the mission鈥檚 success. At 8:52pm, the signal arrived and the New Horizons team announced 鈥渘ominal status鈥 of the spacecraft: the flyby, a venture nine years in the making, was safely and successfully complete.
The spacecraft鈥檚 flyby marks a giant leap in space exploration and offered our first-ever look into the Kuiper Belt, a distant region in the solar system previously unexplored.
Exploring Kuiper Belt objects like the Pluto system will reveal important details of the solar system鈥檚 formation, and help explain the formation of other star systems.
The flyby also marks the last time humankind will ever get their 鈥渇irst look鈥 at other worlds in the solar system.
Global News made an appearance at Plutopalooza, broadcasting a clip of the event on Global鈥檚 News Hour Final that night (found at the 11:40 mark).
As well, seven lucky participants won raffled copies of educational astronomical software donated by Simulation Curriculum Corp, including desktop software Starry Night 7, and mobile app Sky Safari 4.
The Astronomy Club and the 91亚色 Observatory received support for the event from the Faculty of Science and Simulation Curriculum Corp.