New Horizons spacecraft Mission to Pluto
December 30th 2009 07:37
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New Horizons spacecraft
New Horizons spacecraft Mission to Pluto
The New Horizons spacecraft has almost crossed the halfway mark on its journey to the demoted planet Pluto. This journey will take almost 10 years to complete. The New Horizons spacecraft was launched in the beginning of 2006 and is currently the fastest manmade object in our solar system, with a speed of 50,000 KPH (31,000 mph).The spacecraft is due to reach Pluto in 2015.
This speed was obtained by using a sling-shot effect whereby the tiny spacecraft would pass nearby planets using the planet’s gravity to increase the spacecraft momentum.
Not much is known about Pluto since its discovery in 1930 by astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 - January 17, 1997). To say it a very long way from the Sun is somewhat of understatement (3 billion miles from the sun).
It has a moon, Pluto’s surface is not fully discernable using our current earth based telescopes. The mission to Pluto is important as it will give us a better understanding on what is in the asteroid and Kuiper belts. Recent observations by the Hubble telescope suggests that Pluto may have more than one moon.
Pluto Surface scan Hubble image
The Kuiper Belt, extending out to about 50 AU around the Sun, is populated with thousands of small icy bodies and several larger objects besides Pluto. 2005 FY9, codenamed "Easter bunny," is a very large Kuiper belt object discovered on March 31, 2005 and as yet to be officially named.
EL61 Object
Telemetry shows that New Horizons is in good health and almost exactly on its planned course.
A course correction is planned in early January 2010 to orient its high gain communication to earth. New software was uploaded recently to fix a few glitches the last thing we need is for the spacecraft to remain dormant.
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