New Horizons mission members have worked on the project for even longer than it’s taken the spacecraft to get to Pluto. They’ve planned, built and researched – and now their efforts are paying off.
Now the flypast of Pluto is over the space probe New Horizons will begin sending the data back to Earth. It will take many months but what will it reveal about the dwarf planet?
Preparation of Mariner 4 before its fly-by of Mars, exactly 50 years ago.
NASA/JPL
After a decade in space, New Horizons has finally completed its fly-by of Pluto. And the fact that it is no longer a planet makes it all the more interesting.
The last photo sent to Earth by New Horizons before its flyby, and arguably the ‘textbook’ photo of the planet for the next few decades.
NASA
Join Tanya Hill as she live blogs the New Horizons flyby of Pluto at 9.30pm AEST tonight.
What would New Horizons be able to achieve if it had been built today rather than 20 years ago?
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/NASA
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is nearly two decades old. Is that a problem?
New Horizons’ look at Pluto’s Charon-facing hemisphere reveals intriguing geologic details that are of keen interest to mission scientists. This image was taken on July 11, 2015, when the spacecraft was 4 million km from Pluto.
NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
The New Horizons spacecraft is only hours away from its closest approach to Pluto. It’s hoped the brief encounter will help answer many questions about the oddball member of our solar system.
Artist’s impression Pluto and it’s largest satellite Charon. Is this how the dwarf planet will look as New Horizons swings past?
ESO/L. Calçada
Will the best ever images of Pluto reveal something that presents a case for planethood?
Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
NASA/Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Who gets to name the craters and features on our planets was once an ad hoc affair. But now the public can have a say with just days left to vote.
Two views of Ceres acquired by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft ten hours apart on Feb. 12, 2015, from a distance of about 52,000 miles as the dwarf planet rotated.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Like many a scientist before me, I have spent this week trying to grow a crystal. I wasn’t fussy, it didn’t have to be a single crystal – a smush of something would have done – just as long as it had a…
There is no doubt that 2014 was a fantastic year for planetary sciences – the high points were the successful landing of Philae on comet 67P, the discovery of methane by the Curiosity rover on Mars and…
Not yet, but soon … we’re getting closer to sending people to Mars.
Samantha T./Flickr
It was an exciting year in space exploration, with mind-blowing triumphs and heart-breaking failures. On Earth, new rockets and spacecraft were tested by space agencies and commercial ventures. SpaceX…
Artist’s impression of New Horizons as it swings past the dwarf planet Pluto, in July 2015.
NASA
While the Mars Rovers and the Rosetta spacecraft will continue to make headlines in 2015, the stage is set for the solar system’s next great mission – the Pluto-bound New Horizons. Discovered in 1930…
What surprises are beyond the horizon for NASA’s spacecraft during its planned encounter with Pluto and its moon, Charon?
NASA
Last week, scientists using one of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Cameras announced the discovery of a small moon orbiting the dwarf planet Pluto - the fifth satellite discovered in orbit around…