NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons has reached Neptune's orbit, which is its last major crossing before it becomes the first probe to have a close encounter with the dwarf planet.
The piano-sized spacecraft was launched in January 2006 and reached 2.75 billion miles from Earth in a record of eight years and eight months, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Reported.
"It's a cosmic coincidence that connects one of NASA's iconic past outer solar system explorers, with our next outer solar system explorer," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Exactly 25 years ago at Neptune, Voyager 2 delivered our 'first' look at an unexplored planet. Now it will be New Horizons' turn to reveal the unexplored Pluto and its moons in stunning detail next summer on its way into the vast outer reaches of the solar system."
New Horizons is currently about 2.48 billion miles away from Neptune, which is about the distance between earth and the sun. New Horizon's camera captured several long-distance "approach" shots of Neptune on July 10.
"NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 explored the entire middle zone of the solar system where the giant planets orbit," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "Now we stand on Voyager's broad shoulders to explore the even more distant and mysterious Pluto system."
The researcher used data from the Voyager flybys of Neptune's moon Triton and made the best global color map of the object to date; now they're looking forward to a Pluto close up.
"No country except the United States has the demonstrated capability to explore so far away," said Stern. "The U.S. has led the exploration of the planets and space to a degree no other nation has, and continues to do so with New Horizons. We're incredibly proud that New Horizons represents the nation again as NASA breaks records with its newest, farthest and very capable planetary exploration spacecraft."
