Many
of us on the west and east coasts will probably still be in bed when
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft goes soar past Pluto at 7:49 am EDT
(4:49 PDT). At that time the spacecraft will be approximately 7,767
miles of the dwarf planet and cruising by at 38,000 miles per hour.
The spacecraft will use it 7 sensors and cameras to collects
pictures and data that will be transmitted back to Earth.
"It
sounds like science fiction, but it's not," principal
investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in
Boulder, Colorado said as he opened a news conference at mission
headquarters in Maryland.
"Tomorrow morning a United States spacecraft will fly by the
Pluto system and make history."
The
grand piano sized New Horizons spacecraft started its journey in
January of 2006. During its 9 ½ year journey it has done flybys and
photographed some of our other planets and their moons. As it came
closer to the dwarf planet the spacecraft experienced a glitch
that put the craft in “safe mode” and cutting off all data
transmissions to Earth. Luckily, they were able to quickly fix the
problem and restore contact with the spacecraft.
"I'm
pleased that our mission team quickly identified the problem and
assured the health of the spacecraft," said Jim Green, NASA's
Director of Planetary Science. "Now — with Pluto in our sights
— we're on the verge of returning to normal operations and going
for the gold."
Since
fixing that glitch the New Horizons spacecraft has revealed that the
dwarf planet is slightly larger than what we once thought. The
original estimates where that Pluto had a diameter of 1,430 miles
making Eris the largest object, at 1,445 miles across, in the Kuiper
Belt. We now know that Pluto is in fact larger at 1,473 miles across.
"This
settles the debate about the largest object in the Kuiper Belt,"
Stern said.
The
New Horizons also sent back information on 3 of Pluto's 5 moons. The
largest of these moons Charon is almost half the size of Pluto at 751
miles in diameter. The other 2 smaller moons, Nix and Hydra, come in
at a miniature 30 and 20 miles in diameter respectfully. Pluto's
other 2 moons Kkerberos and Styx were too small and distant but will
be measured as the spacecraft zooms past Pluto tomorrow.
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