New Horizons was the first spacecraft to visit Pluto, capturing the first high-resolution images of its surface in July 2015. It is now en route to a Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69, which it will reach on January 1, 2019. The spacecraft has provided valuable new insights into Pluto and its moons, such as evidence of past geological activity on Pluto and a possible subsurface ocean on Charon, but communicating with it is challenging due to its great distance from Earth.

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New Horizons is a NASA spacecraft that was the first to visit dwarf planet Pluto in July 2015. Its
pictures of the dwarf planet's icy surface, as well as observations of Pluto's moon Charon, are
revolutionizing our understanding of solar system objects far from the sun.
The mission is now en route to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt, called 2014 MU69. It will
reach this object on Jan. 1, 2019.
The spacecraft's extreme distance from Earth makes it only the fifth to venture so far from home
(the other ones being Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, and Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which are either
in the outer solar system or in the case of Voyager 1, interstellar space.)
Pluto's distance — about 3 billion miles (5 billion kilometers) from Earth — presented power
challenges for New Horizon's designers, since the sun's rays are too weak to generate power.
There are also long communications delays for those staying in touch with the 1,054-lb. (478
kilograms) spacecraft; at Pluto, it took 4.5 hours for a one-way message to get there from Earth.
Further, our understanding of the Pluto system keeps changing. The planet was discovered in
1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory. (New Horizons carries some of
Tombaugh's ashes.) Since then, we've discovered new moons around Pluto — which can also be
seen as dangerous obstacles for a spacecraft, if not accounted for.
There are also ongoing debates about whether Pluto is a planet or not. The International
Astronomical Union voted to change its status to “dwarf planet” in 2006, following the discovery
of several similarly sized objects in the Kuiper Belt.
However, New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern has repeatedly said he is not in favor
of the decision – especially aft
However, New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern has repeatedly said he is not in favor
of the decision – especially after the flyby revealed more a more complex formation history than
initially anticipated. Stern and others argued that such complexity is more representative of a
planet, and plan to make a formal submission to the IAU explaining that in 2017.

2. Zipping by Jupiter
Spacecraft typically have a set design lifetime, similar to warranties on electronics or cars. Over
time, solar particles,cosmic rays and other phenomena can degrade the surface of the spacecraft
or mess up the electronics. This makes long missions such as New Horizons especially
challenging, requiring backup systems and a source of power (nuclear power) to keep the
spacecraft alive far away from the sun.
New Horizons launched Jan. 19, 2006, on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station in Florida. A power outage and high winds delayed two previous launch attempts, but
New Horizons made it safely into space on the third try.
The spacecraft's first destination was Jupiter, in February and March 2007. New Horizons passed
by less than 1.4 million miles (2.4 million km) of the solar system's largest planet, making it the
first spacecraft to swing by since the Galileo probe finished its mission at Jupiter in 2003.
Among New Horizons' first pictures were some of Io, Jupiter's volcanic moon. The spacecraft
captured the clearest pictures ever of the Tvashtar volcano on Io, showing volcanic fallout that
was bigger than the state of Texas.
Additionally, the spacecraft flew through a stream of charged particles swirling behind Jupiter. It
found large bubbles of charged particles, or plasma, and also revealed variations in the stream.
At the time, astronomers said the observations could help with understanding the environment
around "hot Jupiter" planets found at other stars.
To conserve energy and lessen the chance of anything breaking, controllers kept the spacecraft in
hibernation save for periodic wakeups for navigation and systems checks. It emerged from
hibernation in December 2014 to get it ready for the Pluto encounter and sending data back to
Earth afterwards.
Pluto encounter
New Horizons was so busy gathering data in its July 2015 encounter that, as planned, the
spacecraft didn't communicate with Earth during its closest approach to Pluto and Charon.
Controllers celebrated when New Horizons phoned home and they knew that data was on the
way.
Early pictures from New Horizons showed a surprisingly young surface, with a mountain range
on Pluto as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters). Believed to be about 100 million years old at

3. most, this range likely pointed to recent geological activity on the surface, but how was a
mystery.
“This may cause us to rethink what powers geological activity on many other icy worlds,” said
John Spencer, New Horizons geology, geophysics and imaging team deputy leader, in a
statement shortly after the encounter.
More youthful terrain — a huge plain bereft of craters, just north of the mountainous range —
popped up in pictures sent back in mid-July. The zone has been informally named Sputnik
Planum and is a region of intense scrutiny, given that geologists are still trying to figure out what
caused this.
This high-resolution image from New Horizons shows the “shoreline” of Sputnik Planum on
Pluto.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
Evidence of ionized gas tens of thousands of miles beyond Pluto found around the same time po
pointed to the planet's atmosphere being lost to space after the solar wind crashes into it. Later in
July, team members presented evidence of a haze above Pluto's surface — another surprise. At
the time, the models they had suggested the haze is created when sunlight breaks up methane in
Pluto's atmosphere.
From time to time, New Horizons still does periodic data dumps back to Earth, revealing new
insights about Pluto and Charon. Among them: evidence of a past subsurface ocean on Charon,
and strange water ice hills on Pluto floating in frozen nitrogen. Some scientists have also
suggested that Pluto could have the ingredients for life on its surface, even at its great distance
from the sun.
Pluto's planetary status changes
Ten years can be a long time in planetary science, and that is particularly true of Pluto. Since
New Horizons left our planet in 2006, we've discovered another moon near Pluto. Planners have
made course corrections to keep the spacecraft away from Pluto's moons.
Further, Pluto was demoted from its position as the ninth planet in our solar system. In August
2006, members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the global body that governs
astronomy names and other matters — met in a general assembly to decide on the definition of a
planet.

4. This vote was called in response to the recent discoveries of large bodies in the Kuiper Belt, an
area beyond Neptune believed to contain trillions of objects.
On Aug. 24, 2006, IAU representatives determined three features all planets must possess:
1. Theymust orbitthe sun(and notanotherbody,as a moon orbitsa planet).
2. Theymust have enoughmasstoform a roundshape.
3. Theymust be large enoughtocleanout bitsof rock and othermatter inthe area aroundtheir
orbits.
Pluto didn't meet all the classifications, and was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
The decision drew fire from Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission.
"I'm embarrassed for astronomy. Less than 5 percent of the world's astronomers voted," he said
in a 2006 interview with Space.com. "This definition stinks, for technical reasons."
In 2017, Stern and other scientists announced plans to go again to the IAU to redefine Pluto (and
other objects) once again as planets, based on the complexity of Pluto’s terrain and formation
history.
An overheadviewof the NewHorizonsspacecraft'spathacrossUranus' orbit.
Credit: NASA,JHU/APL
Post-Pluto
Over the Northern Hemisphere summer of 2014, investigators used the Hubble Space Telescope
to see if there were any Kuiper Belt objects within reach of New Horizons after it concluded its
Pluto mission. Scientists identified three candidates, with each of them at least 1 billion miles
(1.6 billion km) beyond the dwarf planet.
With NASA approval in 2016, New Horizons’ mission was extended to take a closer look at one
of these worlds, a Kuiper Belt object dubbed 2014 MU69. The New Horizons team is now
determining how to operate the scientific instruments during the flyby, and the best way to orient
the spacecraft as it goes over. The flyby distance has not been determined as of May 2017, but it
is expected to be somewhere between 3,000 and 20,000 kilometers (1,875 to 12,500 miles).
Meanwhile, even after the mission ends, a group of scientists, artists, engineers and more are
proposing placing a sort of message from Earth on the free hard drive space on the New
Horizons spacecraft.
"When New Horizons gets past Pluto, [and] has done all its data and is going on the slow boat to
the heliopause [the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space], then it might be
possible to just reprogram about 100 megabytes of its memory and upload a new sights and

5. sounds of Earth that are not created by a small group of scientists but, in fact, are globally
crowdsourced," said Jill Tarter, who is the co-founder of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence) Institute, in 2013.
AuthorBio
ElizabethHowell,Space.comContributor
Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space.com who is one of the few Canadian
journalists to report regularly on space exploration. She is pursuing a Ph.D. part-time in
aerospace sciences (University of North Dakota) after completing an M.Sc. (space
studies) at the same institution. She also holds a bachelor of journalism degree from
Carleton University. Besides writing, Elizabeth teaches communications at the university
and community college level. To see her latest projects, follow Elizabeth on Twitter
at @HowellSpace.
ElizabethHowell,Space.com Contributoron
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