New Horizons is a space probe sent to observe Pluto and its moons. It launched in 2006 and is expected to arrive at Pluto in 2015. It is the first mission in NASA’s Frontier Missions category and will become the fifth spacecraft to leave the solar system. The probe took the first images of Pluto in 2006 and will fly within 10,000 km of Pluto in 2015.
New Horizons is the first space probe sent to directly observe the frigid dwarf planet Pluto and its moons Charon, Hydra and Nix. Pluto is a Kuiper belt object, a member of the asteroid belt spread beyond the orbit of Neptune, which also includes the dwarf planet Eris. Depending on what scientists decide, they might even approve of a flyby of other Kuiper belt objects.
New Horizons launched on January 19, 2006. It passed Jupiter on February 28, 2007 and is expected to arrive at Pluto in July 2015. Pluto’s eccentric orbit places it between 30 and 49 AU (Earth-Sun distance) from the Sun. In comparison , Jupiter is only about 5.5 AU from the Sun. As New Horizons passes Pluto, it will continue out of the solar system at escape velocity, becoming the fifth spacecraft to do so, after Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA’s new Fronter Missions category, which are larger and more expensive than Discovery programs but less expensive than flagship programs, such as a moon launch. Another upcoming frontier mission is Juno, an orbiter to be sent to study Jupiter’s magnetic field and atmospheric composition.
When it was launched, New Horizons took just nine hours to pass lunar orbit. With a speed relative to Earth of 16.21 km/s (36.260 mph) when its last stage shut down, New Horizons was the fastest spacecraft launch ever. Using a gravity assist from Jupiter, the spacecraft was accelerated by a factor of 4 km/s (8.947 mph) and sent on a trajectory inclined 2.5 degrees to the ecliptic. This is necessary because Pluto’s eccentric orbit places it substantially above the ecliptic at times, unlike the true planets of the solar system.
On September 21, 2006, the first images of Pluto were taken by New Horizon’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI). These images are essential because navigation to distant Kuiper belt objects requires great precision and adequate information. In 2011, New Horizons will pass the orbit of Uranus, and in 2014 Neptune. In 2015, if all goes to plan, New Horizons will fly within 10,000 km (6,200 mi) of Pluto and 27,000 km (16,800 mi) of its largest moon, Charon.
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