NASA’s New Horizons: Journey to Pluto and Its Surprising Discoveries

Novina Putri Bestari, CNBC Indonesia

Tech

Friday, 11/08/2023 15:50 WIB

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Earth and Pluto are billions of kilometers apart. This is also what makes the trip to the edge of the solar system take so long.

It will take at least 9 years to reach Pluto. This was achieved by NASA’s New Horizons mission, which launched in January 2006 and made its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015. Space, Friday (11/8/2023).

Knowledge of Pluto is indeed a challenge for space missions. This is because scientists only know about three moons around it, but it turns out that during the trip they found more satellites orbiting Pluto and they are not visible from Earth.

In October 2021, New Horizons successfully displayed its first close-up images of Pluto and its moons.

New Horizons also puts Pluto’s diameter at about 2,370 km or less than one-fifth the diameter of Earth. In fact, it is two-thirds smaller than the Moon.

From observations of Pluto’s surface, it is known that there are quite a variety of surface features. Including a mountain that has a height of 3,500 meters.

So far, only New Horizons has made it there. Two NASA ships, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, never approached Pluto.

Launching NASA’s official website, the agency stated that Voyager’s initial mission was to explore Jupiter and Saturn. But with a different trajectory.

According to NASA, Voyager 1 could head to Pluto. But at that time the focus of his research was on Saturn’s rings and one of the planets Titan.

Ultimately, the plane’s trajectory shifts upward from the plane of the ecliptic. So no meeting with Pluto.

Voyager 2, which is headed for the edge of space, said NASA could theoretically head to Pluto. But the ship has a destination point to Neptune and a trip to Pluto is not very practical.

Voyager 2’s journey to Neptune is also much longer than New Horizons’ journey to Pluto. Voyager 2 took 12 years to get to the last planet of the solar system and a moon called Triton.

(npb/npb)

2023-08-11 08:50:00
#NASA #Reveals #Earth #Travel #Time #Pluto