New Horizons is going to be at its closest to the ninth planet (controversies aside about its status – I assume here Pluto is a planet after all) in July 2015 – exactly 135 days, 10 hours at the time of this post. But on its travel of nine years, the probe has already started transmitting images of that remote, frozen world.
This is a gallery of what we had so far, while much more is still to come.
Pluto is generally more than 3.6 billion miles (about 5.8 billion km) away from the sun. That is 40 times as far from the sun as Earth (i.e. 39.5 AU). Its orbit is also worth noticing, since Pluto, different from other planets, rotates around the Sun in an oval, tilted orbit. Because of it, Pluto’s distance varies significantly.
As detailed in this article by space.com, “US $700 million New Horizons mission launched on Jan. 19, 2006, to give researchers their first up-close looks at Pluto and its five known moons. The probe will zoom within 8,500 miles (13,600 km) of Pluto’s surface on July 14, then keep flying out into the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune. The probe could then conduct a flyby of a second object in 2019 (if NASA approves and funds an extended mission).”
Some curious information, taken from NASA. One day on Pluto takes about 153 hours, give or take. That’s the time it takes for Pluto to rotate around its axis once. Pluto makes a complete orbit around the sun in 248 Earth years on average.
Pluto has five known moons, Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. However, Pluto is often termed double-planet system due to the fact that its moon Charon – a huge one and tidally locked – orbits so near to him.
Apart from Charon, the other moons are a recent discovery. In May 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope Pluto Companion Search Team found out Nix and Hydra. Two more small moons, Kerberos and Styx, were discovered in 2011 and 2012. Additional (and tiny) ones are expected to be found by New Horizons.
A good presentation about the mission and its achievements can be watched here:
Finally, a post I can understand! Just kidding, kind of. I enjoy trying!
One of my brothers would understand every post- I’ve always admired his inquisitive, intelligent, curious nature.
Thanks for sharing!
Sue
Thanks, Sue. My impression is that news about space missions have been getting better and better since a few years. They make real efforts to communicate in an accessible way. The media success of ESA Rosetta is a good example. 🙂
Space is a fascinating, if not densely rich in information topic for the news. It takes talent to make some of it accessible to the Joe Schmos like me! Thanks again for sharing!
Pingback: Space missions – updates | The Earthian Hivemind