886 Encyclopedia of the Solar System
FIGURE 11 Cassiniwas launched in 1997.
New Horizons
Launched in 2006 at such a high speed that it will pass
Jupiter in less than thirteen months from Earth departure,
theNew Horizonsspacecraft is to investigate the surfaces
and atmospheres of Pluto and its large moon Charon dur-
ing a flyby in 2015. After that it is expected to continue
functioning for several more years, exploring the mysteries
of the Kuiper Belt, that far-out region of the solar system
where the first representatives of a likely multitude of small,
icy objects have already been discovered.11. Conclusion
Thus has ended the first, magnificent phase of investigation
throughout the Sun’s domain. Meanwhile, spaceflight in the
inner solar system is reinvigorated as robotic missions to the
Moon and Mars take on the purpose, in addition to science,
of acting as precursors to renewed human exploration and
perhaps ultimately settlement of communities off Earth.
And discoveries of giant planets orbiting other stars, more
than 150 to date, tell us that exploration of star-and-planet
systems has a limitless future.