The pixelated image you see above was received by scientists on July 8, taken when New Horizons was 5 million miles away.
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As Earth spins, the powerful yet highly sensitive dishes at Tidbinbilla will be in the flawless position facing Pluto for Tuesday’s approach. Pluto’s colour seems to come from the way that the sun’s light interacts with certain molecules in its atmosphere, which generates the red compounds that then fall onto the surface. Flight controllers managed to regain contact with the spacecraft in just over an hour and correct the tense situation, occurring after a relatively quiet journey of 3 billion miles (4.83 billion kilometers) and 9½ years.
New Horizons has been on a long voyage toward Pluto – the only major object in our solar system not yet visited by a robotic space probe – since 2006. The Post’s Joel Achenbach explains NASA’s New Horizons mission. (The New Horizons team has narrowed the possible targets down to two finalists, both of which are much smaller than Pluto.).
Just a few months later, however, in August, Pluto was relegated to the status of “dwarf planet” by the global Astronomical Union.
But Stern disagrees with the IAU’s decision.
It is fitting that when New Horizon first set off in January 2006, carrying Tombaugh’s ashes, Pluto was still considered a planet. Pluto at the time was still considered a planet, with scientists later that year voting to demote its status to that of a dwarf planet. But Pluto is different: Even though it is out beyond the gas giants, it has a solid, icy surface. Instead, it should gather the maximum amount of information as it can while sweeping past not only Pluto, but also the moons Kerberos Hydra, Charon, and Nix.
Notice that the paths cross between the positions for July 14 and July 15, the exact time that New Horizons flies by Pluto. It weighed 1,054 pounds (478 kilograms) at launch.
Presently, the probe is moving at a speed of about 14kms per second and that is pretty fast to get into orbit on July 14.
“The universe has a lot more variety than we thought about, and that’s wonderful”, Stern said.
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“Tonight, we are celebrating a milestone in human achievement, a moment that we are all lucky enough to share together”, the host of one such gathering says in the video.
