New Horizons
While exploring nearby planets with satellites has a long history, it is only more recently that NASA has started exploring the far reaches of our solar system! The satellite New Horizons was designed to reach Pluto - 3.6 billion miles away - and send back images and data to analyze and explore the dwarf planet up close for the very first time.
Artist's rendition of New Horizons exploring Pluto
Photo Credit: NASA
Details of New Horizons and its instruments
Photo Credit: NASA
When was New Horizons launched?
New Horizons was launched on January 19th, 2006 and reached Pluto in 2015! After reaching and completing its mission on Pluto, New Horizons continued past the dwarf planet to explore other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy celestial bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.
What was New Horizons' mission?
New Horizons' mission was initially to explore the surface of Pluto and send images and data back to Earth. After successfully completing its mission, New Horizons was given new orders, to continue exploring a region of the solar system called the Kuiper Belt.
What is special about New Horizons and its mission?
New Horizons was the first planet to explore and take high resolution photographs of Pluto. New Horizons has seven different types of instruments, including radiometers, spectrometers, and cameras. After completing its mission to explore Pluto, New Horizons continued deeper into the Kuiper Belt to explore an object called Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored by a spacecraft. Arrokoth is 4.1 billion miles away from the Earth. Because they are so far away from our Sun, Kuiper Belt objects like Arroketh are thought to be frozen samples of what the outer solar system was like 4.5 billion years ago, just after it began!
Al-Idrisi Mountains, Pluto
In this image, New Horizons captured the al-Idrisi mountains, formed by Pluto's water-ice crust as it was pushed into peaks. Some of these mountains are as tall as 1.5 miles high! How is the way these mountains formed different from or similar to mountains on earth?
Photo Credit: NASA
Lake of frozen nitrogen, Pluto
Here, New Horizons has captured a former lake of frozen liquid nitrogen. The image provides evidence of a time billions of years in the past when liquids might have been able to flow in a much warmer climate. How do you think Pluto's changing climate affected its appearance?
Photo Credit: NASA
Bladed surface, Pluto
Here we can see a "bladed" area of Pluto's surface. This type of formation is not seen anywhere else in our solar system, prompting scientists to wonder what geological processes caused it to form. How do you think the process of weathering might affect this terrain in the future?
Photo Credit: NASA
Ice plains, Pluto
In this image, New Horizons shows us the edge of Pluto's ice plains, where deep valleys and pits have formed. Scientists believe that these valleys were caused by the surface of the planet collapsing, although why it collapsed is still a mystery. Can you think of an equivalent on Earth?
Photo Credit: NASA
How do these images help us learn about Pluto?
Since Pluto is so far away from the Earth, it is challenging for scientists to learn about it without very powerful telescopes - or satellites! Satellite imagery like that from New Horizons helps us understand the planets at the very edges of our solar system. These images are especially helpful as scientists work to figure out how Pluto and its moons "fit in" with our understanding of our solar system and its origins. By taking pictures of frozen lakes and collapsed valleys, New Horizons is helping scientists figure out how planets like Pluto have evolved over time.
What do these images tell us about the terrain on Pluto?
Pluto's icy world is very different from our own! In analyzing these images we see lakes of frozen liquid nitrogen, jagged mountains of glaciers, "bladed" terrain, and incredibly deep valleys. These pictures help us to understand the variety of surfaces on Pluto and how they might interact with each other and with Pluto's climate and atmosphere.