The New Horizons mission

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