NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has passed the milestone of now being closer to its destination - dwarf planet Pluto, than it is to Earth. How far is Pluto? Well, the spacecraft is traveling 750,000 miles per day - equivalent to circling the Earth more than 30 times, and yet it still has 5 more years to go. The Sun appears from Pluto only as a particularly bright star - nothing more.
Since blast-off almost 4 years ago, New Horizons has already traveled 1.527 billion miles, and is now halfway between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. It has 1.526 billion miles to go. It left Earth at over 10 miles per second, the fastest speed ever by a man-made object.
Above is an artist's rendition of what Pluto might look like. The haze is an atmosphere that Pluto gets in its summer; its moon Charon is also portrayed. Below, is the best picture we have for now.
Comments