We ’ve launched probes all over the place . We ’ve snapped and beamed back pictures of every spot in thesolar organization . Except Pluto . Call it a major planet . Call it a gnome major planet . Either direction , it ’s the last stranger . Not for long .
New Horizons ‘ January 2006 launching beat Pluto ’s extremely controversial downgrade later that year . But even if it had n’t , the mission , despite sounding like a dating service , is of great grandness to our agreement of our trivial nook of the galaxy . After escaping Earth ’s atmosphere with a great velocity than any other probe in history , New Horizons made its way straight for Pluto — and is halfway there now . Although the petite hoar ball is the name of the game , New Horizons has managed to snap some absolutely gorgeous planetary portrait along the way , picking up focal ratio as it slingshots its fashion through their gravitative field .
Even within its first year of hurtling away from the Sunday , New Horizons was able to make out Pluto from a distance of 2.6 billion miles away . Just a speck , really . A speck among a mickle of other speck . But it essay the probe ’s ability to take ( relatively ) penetrating pics , of things zillion of miles forth — instrumental for the mission ’s ultimate closeups of Pluto .
In the meanwhile , we wait . And enjoy the pretty ikon . But why go at all ? Why drop $ 700 million in tax dollars to pilot by ( not enough fuel to stop and orbit , mind you ) an ice ball that ’s not even a planet any longer ?
To ascertain about ourselves . You see , the nippy planets at the out compass of the Solar System — a zona recognize as the Kuiper Belt — can tell us a lot about our own globe . And Pluto is the only one that ’s still pretty mysterious to us . As NASA explain , “ The ice rink nanus are ancient relics that formed over 4 billion twelvemonth ago . Because they are literally the bodies out of which the larger planets accumulated , the ice dwarf have a great deal to teach us about planetary organization . New Horizons seeks those solvent . ” As well , “ Pluto ’s atmosphere is escaping to blank like a comet , but on a world exfoliation . Nothing like this exists anywhere else in the solar scheme . It is thought that the Earth ’s original hydrogen / helium ambience was drop off to space this elbow room . By study Pluto ’s atmospheric relief valve , we can memorize a majuscule trade about the evolution of Earth ’s atmosphere . ”
We ’ll also , perhaps more interestingly , learn a hell of a lot about Pluto — because right now we do n’t know much . By wing by and carry scene , we ’ll be able to map Pluto ’s dark control surface in unprecedented item . telling stuff .
But it wo n’t be until 2015 when New Horizons glides enough Pluto . And by close , I mean 6,200 mile away — but that sure flap 2.6 billion . And then , it ’ll just keep lead . Another decade or so and it ’ll be out of the Solar System . go , and going , and going . But that ’s a long way from now . Today , let ’s just lionise the five year grade , and like the little guy a pleasant four more until it hits Pluto . We wish you luck on the other one-half of the trip , and a very cold happy natal day . [ NASA New Horizons ]
New HorizonsPlutoSolar SystemSpace
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