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NASA Space Probe Reaches Pluto After 3 Billion Mile Journey: VIDEO
At approximately 7:49 a.m. ET this morning, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, after a three billion mile, nine year journey, reached as close as it will get to Pluto. The craft buzzed as close as 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) above the surface as part of an historic journey to gather information and data about Pluto and its moons.
The image you see above is the last image taken before the Pluto flyby, taken on Monday, July 13, from a distance of 476,000 miles.
The New Horizons team was giddy as the craft reached its destination in the Pluto system.
You can see them celebrate in the video below at about 19:00. Science and astronomy luminaries including Bill Nye were on hand for the event.
NPR reports:
A trove of information is expected to be released Tuesday — particularly tonight, after NASA reconnects with the New Horizons craft that’s been focused on gathering information about Pluto.
In addition to a delay of more than 4 hours (due to the probe’s distance from Earth), information will trickle back to NASA at a rate that would frustrate many Internet users.
Alice Bowman, the New Horizons mission operations manager, says the data rate is around 1,000 bits per second, with a maximum of around 4,0000. That’s just a fraction of the traditional 56K speed of U.S. dial-up accounts.
A key revelation that’s already come out about Pluto concerns its size — NASA says its diameter is 1,473 miles, or 2,370 kilometers, ending a debate that has raged since the planet’s discovery in 1930.
We’ll be posting any new and exciting images as they come in. Here’s a computer simulation of the Flyby posted by NASA. No doubt many more photos and videos of the event will be forthcoming.
YES! After over 9 years & 3+ billion miles, @NASANewHorizons #PlutoFlyby was at 7:49am ET. t.co/Czrvonxugd pic.twitter.com/aSucgORofT
— NASA (@NASA) July 14, 2015
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Andy Towle
NASA Space Probe Reaches Pluto After 3 Billion Mile Journey: VIDEO
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