Pluto
Earth
Closest
approach:
7,750 miles
Nix
Charon
Hydra
Trajectory of
spacecraft
Kerberos
Intersteller
mission
2020
Kuiper Belt
mission
2016-2020
Pluto system
Kuiper Belt
Pluto
Styx
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Saturn
Arrival
14 July 2015
Mar
2011
Launch
Jan 2006
Feb
2007
Planet orbits
The New Horizons spacecraft travelled 3 billion miles and took 9.5 years to reach the Pluto system
The spacecraft had to fly through a target circle of only 200 miles in diameter at a speed of 34,000mph. It had half an hour to gather data during its closest approach
After passing through the Pluto system the spacecraft will continue its mission into the Kuiper Belt - a region of space beyond the planets consisting mainly of frozen remnants from the Solar System's formation
It will take until late 2016 for all the data to transmitted back to Earth at a rate of just 2 kilobits a second. It takes 4.5 hours for the signal to reach Earth
The Kuiper Belt and beyond
Pluto encounter
The voyage
Observations were also made of Pluto’s five known moons
Closest
approach:
7,750 miles
Nix
Charon
Hydra
Trajectory of spacecraft
Kerberos
Intersteller
mission
2020
Kuiper Belt
mission
2016-2020
Pluto system
Kuiper Belt
Pluto
Styx
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune
Saturn
Arrival
14 July 2015
Aug
2014
Mar
2011
Jun
2008
Launch
Jan 2006
Feb
2007
Pluto
Planet orbits
Earth
The New Horizons spacecraft travelled 3 billion miles and took 9.5 years to reach the Pluto system
The spacecraft had to fly through a target circle of only 200 miles in diameter at a speed of 34,000mph. It had half an hour to gather data during its closest approach
After passing through the Pluto system the spacecraft will continue its mission into the Kuiper Belt - a region of space beyond the planets consisting mainly of frozen remnants from the Solar System's formation
It will take until late 2016 for all the data to transmitted back to Earth at a rate of just 2 kilobits a second. It takes 4.5 hours for the signal to reach Earth
The Kuiper Belt and beyond
Pluto encounter
The voyage
Observations were also made of Pluto’s five known moons
Pluto
Planet orbits
Neptune
Uranus
Saturn
Mars
Earth
Jupiter
Arrival
14 July 2015
Aug 2014
Closest approach:
7,750 miles
Nix
Charon
Sun
Jupiter’s orbit
Hydra
Trajectory of spacecraft
Intersteller
mission
2020
Kuiper Belt
mission
2016-2020
Pluto system
Kuiper Belt
Kerberos
Pluto
Styx
Mar 2011
Jun 2008
Launch
Jan 2006
Feb 2007
The New Horizons spacecraft travelled 3 billion miles and took 9.5 years to reach the Pluto system
The spacecraft had to fly through a target circle of only 200 miles in diameter at a speed of 34,000mph. It had half an hour to gather data during its closest approach
Observations were also made of Pluto’s five known moons
After passing through the Pluto system the spacecraft will continue its mission into the Kuiper Belt - a region of space beyond the planets consisting mainly of frozen remnants from the Solar System's formation
It will take until late 2016 for all the data to transmitted back to Earth at a rate of just
2 kilobits a second. It takes 4.5 hours for the signal to reach Earth
The Kuiper Belt and beyond
Pluto encounter
The voyage