Rendezvous with Pluto
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will soon introduce us to this tiny, distant world
PLUTO IN SIGHT The New Horizons spacecraft launched in 2006 on a 9.5-year, 5-billion-kilometer trek across the solar system to spend a few hours with Pluto and its five known moons. The probe will tear past the dwarf planet on July 14 and provide humankind with its first intimate look at the remote world in orbit around the sun.
Adapted from NASA, JHUAPL, SWRI; photo illustration by M. Telfer; background image: NASA; Earth: NASA; other planets: see below
Tiny, far-flung Pluto is about to have a visitor — at least for a few hours.