New Horizons spacecraft on way to Pluto, arriving in 2015
The never-before-seen surface of the distant planet Pluto is resolved in these NASA Hubble Space Telescope pictures, taken with the European Space Agency's (ESA) Faint Object Camera (FOC) aboard Hubble. / Alan Stern (Southwest Research Institute), Marc Buie (Lowell Observatory)/
Pluto's planetary predicament
Date published: 7/3/2008
AS WE CELEBRATE our nation's indepen- dence this July Fourth, keep in mind that our country will achieve another major milestone seven years from this month.
That is when the United States will make history as the first nation to have visited every planet in the solar system with unmanned spacecraft. That last planet is Pluto, and New Horizons is the spacecraft on its way to visit the edge of our solar system.
Launched in January 2006, New Horizons was the fastest manmade object ever launched from Earth, at a speed of more than 35,000 miles per hour. Compare that with a "speeding" bullet at a mere 2,000 miles per hour.
Even at its breakneck speed, New Horizons will not reach Pluto until July 2015. It flew past Jupiter early last year and is currently crossing Saturn's orbit.
Although the spacecraft is in hibernation mode, it sends a weekly beacon signal to Earth, which enables NASA to gauge its health. It carries a huge science payload to study Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. To learn more, go to the Web site pluto.jhuapl.edu.
New Horizons will be so far from Earth when it encounters Pluto that it will take 41/2 hours for the radio signal traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth.
Discovered in 1930, Pluto was named for the Roman god of the dead and eternal darkness, an appropriate title given its location in the cold, dark outer reaches of the solar system. It cannot be seen without a very powerful telescope, and is so far from the sun that it takes an incredibly long 248 years to orbit the sun just once.
Very little is known about Pluto, but modern technology has enabled us to discover its three moons and other objects beyond the planet Neptune's orbit.
Recently, astronomers concluded that Pluto, one of many smaller objects in the outer solar system, is not as unusual as was once surmised. As a result, in 2006 Pluto was "demoted" from its status as the ninth planet in our solar system.
Glad you enjoyed the article!(posted by
davidastronomy
, July 3, 2008 10:22 pm)
Matt, I am very glad you're enjoying my monthly astronomy columns. I enjoy bringing these astronomical subjects of interest to the public. Keep looking up!! David Abbou
Great Article on Pluto Expedition!(posted by
Matt_Epperly
, July 3, 2008 5:52 pm)
Thank you for providing a different type of article to read. Its good to see something we normally would not see in an everyday newspaper. Alot of us readers are interested in things as cool as going to pluto or another planet, however we just do not see alot of information on this subject. These articles give us something else to look forward to other then subjects like the Presidential race. It really brings a whole new intrest to us all. Thanks again!
