The first age of deep space planetary exploration came to an end today as NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto at 7:49 am EDT. Even to Hubble, they appeared as points of light, and that’s how they looked to New Horizons until the final week of its approach to Pluto.
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An unmanned NASA spacecraft has whizzed by Pluto, making its closest approach in the climax of a decade-long journey to explore the dwarf planet for the first time.
Pluto and one of its moons, Charon, taken on July 9th from New Horizons, 5.4 million kilometers out.
The Google Doodle for July 14, which was created by Kevin Laughlin, honors the groundbreaking voyage of New Horizons to the far reaches of the solar system where Pluto is located.
The most risky hazards for the probe are dust particles trapped in orbit around Pluto and a strike can hit the spacecraft, scientists said, but added that such a risk is very low. Pluto also has four little moons.
But Stern disagrees with the IAU’s decision. After all, Pluto is essentially flying into the unknown. Thus, Pluto represents a specific evolutionary stage of Earth, and will help scientists understand our planet’s formational history.
One of the great successes of 19th century astronomy was the prediction of the existence of Neptune by studying the motion of Uranus. That’s probably due to the nitrogen and methane atmosphere freezing onto the surface and sublimating (when a solid melts directly into a gas without becoming liquid) again.
Some of his ashes were put in a canister about 2 inches wide and half-an-inch tall that was attached to the inside of the piano-sized spacecraft’s upper deck.
If a mission extension is granted, New Horizons will seek out another Kuiper Belt object before heading out of the solar system – for good. “We are excited to finally lay this question to rest”, said mission scientist Bill McKinnon, Washington University, St Louis. “The most exciting discoveries will likely be the ones we don’t anticipate”.
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Nine years later, New Horizons began its epic voyage.
