After more than 5 billion kilometers flying through space shaves a US probe Tuesday along his target, the dwarf planet Pluto. New Horizons has been underway for almost a decade. He should make it clear in the coming months how Pluto and its moons look like and what they are made of. He must also find out whether there might still turn around objects that were not discovered
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Photo: NASA
Scientists see it from Earth. In recent weeks the probe Pluto was in sight. He sent still sharper images to Earth. The faint shadow was found to have all kinds of shapes on its surface. What these are is not clear.
Around 13:49 hours Dutch time, the New Horizons closest to Pluto. The distance is about 12,500 kilometers. By comparison, for example, navigation systems send their signals to satellites that are two to three times as far from the earth. When everything is over, the New Horizons sends a confirmation signal to Earth. That only comes in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday at the flight control.
Pluto is the great unknown in our solar system. He’s so little and is so far away that it was only discovered in 1930, much later than the planets. New Horizons is only the first mission to Pluto. Scientists do not know exactly what is Pluto. First it was the ninth planet in our solar system, but in 2006 he was demoted to dwarf planet. Not every scientist, however, agree with that
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