After over 9 years of travel, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will finally perform its flyby of Pluto tomorrow morning. The first close-up photos of the dwarf planet and now-confirmed largest object in the Kuiper Belt will be anxiously awaited by the entire team on Earth. When launched in January 19, 2006, the spacecraft set a record 36,373mph for the highest launch speed of a human-made object from Earth. On February 28, 2007, New Horizons passed Jupiter during a gravity assist to further increase the speed another 9,000mph.
At the time of posting, the spacecraft was only a measly 480,000 miles away (compared to the 4.87 billion miles between Earth and Pluto). After passing Pluto the spacecraft will continue its extra-solar trek by studying other Kuiper Belt objects. Be sure to check out NASA’s live coverage of the event tomorrow!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
Source: https://youtu.be/kzyrBIySPWw
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