Pluto News, The Kuipers and Beyond 12-MAY-08 en-us Washington DC (SPX) Apr 30, 2008 - As you read these words, the New Horizons spacecraft remains in a long period of almost continuous hibernation that we entered in February 21st that which will stretch until September 2nd. During this time the spacecraft will fly from 9 to almost 11 times as far from the Sun as the Earth is, covering over 300 million more kilometers!]]> ]]> Washington DC (SPX) Feb 25, 2008 - New Horizons passed a planetary milepost last week when it reached a distance of 9 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun - about 836.6 million miles, or nine times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. "The spacecraft destined for the ninth planet is now just beyond 9 AU and continuing outbound for the solar system's frontier at more than 60,000 kilometers per hour!" says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of NASA Headquarters.]]> Tempe AZ (SPX) Jan 24, 2008 - Quick: What's the order of the planets in the solar system? Need a little help? Maybe the following mnemonic rings a bell: "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Up Nine Pizzas." It's useful for remembering the order of the planets today, but it wouldn't have been as useful in the past, and not just because the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to "dwarf planet" last year.]]> Washington DC (SPX) Jan 18, 2008 - Just like the parent of a kid growing up from an infant to a toddler, my experience with New Horizons in flight - since our launch two years ago this week - is that the first two years have passed amazingly quickly and yet amazingly slowly, all at the same time. I guess that given some of the spacecraft hiccups of the past several months, one could also analogize that New Horizons has reached the "Terrible Two" stage and is into saying "no" a little more these days than in its first year.]]> ]]> Laurel MD (SPX) Nov 26, 2007 - New Horizons has now covered 85% of the distance from the Sun to Saturn's orbit, which it will pass in mid-2008. Of course, Saturn will be nowhere near New Horizons when we pass that milestone, as it is by chance located far around the Sun from the path New Horizons is following to Pluto. But as you can tell, we are really getting to be well into the outer solar system now.]]> Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 09, 2007 - New Horizons is about to enter hibernation for its long trip to Pluto. It will be deep in slumber, but not forgotten, and we've taken a crucial step to ensure that its precious data will never be forgotten either. All planetary missions undergo a process called "data archiving," which protects the information against the ravages of time.]]> Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 24, 2007 - Goddard's LEISA instrument has become a first-rate photographer, contributing to this spectacular photo of Jupiter, which appeared on the cover of the October 12 issue of the journal Science. It is a montage of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, taken by the New Horizons spacecraft as it sped past Jupiter on its way to Pluto.]]> ]]> Washington DC (SPX) Oct 16, 2007 - Since I last wrote here, at the start of August, New Horizons has already traveled another 100 million kilometers from the Sun, putting us more than 7.5 Astronomical Units out, roughly halfway between Jupiter and Saturn. By the middle of next year, we'll be beyond Saturn's orbit, where Cassini is. That will make New Horizons the farthest spacecraft on its way to or at its target.]]> Laurel MD (SPX) Oct 10, 2007 - The voyage of NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft through the Jupiter system earlier this year provided a bird's-eye view of a dynamic planet that has changed since the last close-up looks by NASA spacecraft. New Horizons passed Jupiter on Feb. 28, riding the planet's gravity to boost its speed and shave three years off its trip to Pluto.]]> Laurel MD (SPX) Sep 28, 2007 - With a slight tweak of its trajectory this week, New Horizons is headed toward the heart of the distant Pluto system. Starting at 4:04 p.m. EDT on Sept. 25, New Horizons fired its thrusters for 15 minutes and 37 seconds, using less than a kilogram of fuel to change its velocity by 2.37 meters per second, or just more than 5 miles per hour. Monitored from the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., the maneuver was only the fourth trajectory correction for the spacecraft since launch in January 2006, and the first since it sped through the Jupiter system last February.]]> ADVERTISEMENT

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]]> ]]> Washington DC (SPX) Aug 02, 2007 - Since I last wrote here, in mid-June, New Horizons has continued its speedy journey from Jupiter's orbit (at 5.2 astronomical units) toward Saturn's at 9.5 AU. On average, we travel about a third of an astronomical unit each month, or roughly a million miles per day. So, as August begins, we're nearing the halfway point in the Jupiter-to-Saturn leg of our journey, set to reach 7 AU on Aug. 6. We'll pass Saturn's orbit (but not Saturn, which will be far away from our path) next June.]]> Tempe, AZ (SPX) Jul 18, 2007 - Frigid geysers spewing material up through cracks in the crust of Pluto's companion Charon and recoating parts of its surface in ice crystals could be making this distant world into the equivalent of an outer solar system ice machine. Evidence for these ice deposits comes from high-resolution spectra obtained using the Gemini Observatory's Adaptive Optics system, ALTAIR coupled with the near-infrared instrument NIRI.]]> Washington DC (SPX) Jun 29, 2007 - New Horizons' first operational hibernation phase is off to a successful start! On commands transmitted from the Mission Operations Center at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, through NASA's Deep Space Network, the spacecraft eased into hibernation mode in the early hours of June 27. Since then, New Horizons has twice broadcast "green" beacon tones back to Earth, indicating all systems are healthy and operating as programmed.]]> Advertise in this newsletter or website click for advertising kit - PDF File

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