It is the longest journey a person has ever undertaken.
Granted, Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, is now just
a few grams of ashes aboard the New Horizons spacecraft.
It took nine-and-a-half years for the half-ton probe to travel to
Pluto, and it fi nally passed within 8,000 miles of the dwarf
planet’s surface in July 2015. The ex-member of the pantheonof proper planets is one of the last unexplored objects in the
solar system. NASA launched the mission in 2006 to explore
Pluto as well as the edge of the solar system. It has until 2025.
By then the probe’s four electricity-producing batteries will be
discharged. The energy is provided by the radioactive decay of
24 pounds of plutonium— an element that’s named after Pluto.3 BILLION MILES, 9.5 YEARS,
1 UNPRECEDENTED ENCOUNTER
JULY 2015
New Horizons gathered
the bulk of its data from
about 12 hours before to
12 hours after its closest
approach to Pluto. On
July 14, 2015, the probe
passed by the dwarf planet
at a distance of less than
8,000 miles.2007 TO 2014
Eight years of hibernation: Most of the time,
the probe slowly rotates in energy-saving
mode as it travels toward its target. Once a
week it sends a status report to Earth.
2017 TO 2019
After the flyby of Pluto, the mission
continues: The probe will go on to
examine an object in the Kuiper belt
called 2014 MU69 in January 2019.AUTUMN 2014
About 200 days before its
arrival, New Horizons wakes
up from its sleep mode and
starts taking measurements.PARTICLE
DETECTORTELESCOPEDUST PARTICLE COUNTERSURFACE
SURVEYORSPECTROMETERRADARKUIPER BELTPLUTOEARTHJUPITERSOLAR WIND METERideasanddiscoveries.com 81 Mar 2017