Space Topics: New Horizons
Mission Updates
May 3, 2007: Results from Jupiter Encounter Streaming in
. . . New Horizons gathered volumes of data during its fly-by, which are both visually stunning and rich in scientific import. The data was initially stored in on-board memory banks, and is currently being transmitted to Earth in a steady stream. Around 34 gigabits of information were gathered by the spacecraft at Jupiter, and their transmission to Earth will continue for several more weeks. Nevertheless, with 70% of the data now hand, Stern and his team took the time to point out some of New Horizons’ remarkable observations from the Jupiter encounter.
February 28, 2007: At Closest Approach, a Fresh View of Jupiter
Blazing through the Jovian system twenty times faster than a speeding bullet, New Horizons is almost exactly at the point of its closest approach to the planet Jupiter. At 9:45 pm Pacific time on February 27 (5:45 am Universal Time on February 28) the spacecraft passed within 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) of Jupiter before continuing on its long journey to Pluto and the Kuiper belt. The Jupiter encounter will give New Horizons a major boost along its way, increasing its speed by nearly 15,000 kilometers per hour (9000 miles per hour) and shortening its travel time by several years. But it is also the first chance in years for scientists to study the system up close.
January 19, 2007: A "Stress Test" at Jupiter
Exactly a year after its launch on January 19, 2006, New Horizons is fast closing in on Jupiter, the first target on its near decade-long journey. On February 28 the spacecraft will approach to within 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) of Jupiter before speeding along on to its way to the edge of the solar system. Overall, between now and the end of June, New Horizons will conduct around 700 separate observations of the giant planet.
September 27, 2006: LORRI Snaps First Picture of Jupiter
More than eight months into its epic journey, New Horizons is now cruising through the outer borders of the asteroid belt at a dazzling 70,000 kilometers per hour (45,000 miles per hour). The spacecraft is still almost nine years away from its flight through the Plutonian system in the summer of 2015, but only a few months from its closest encounter with the giant Jupiter on February 28, 2007.
September 5, 2006: First-Light for LORRI
As New Horizons races through the solar system at a dazzling 70,000 kilometers (43,500 miles) per hour, it continues to test its instruments and systems one by one. In June the Ralph imaging system locked on to asteroid 2002 JF56 and took sharply focused images of it as it sped by. On August 29 it was the turn of LORRI, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager: at 2:40 a.m. EDT the covering door popped open, and five minutes later the camera took its first pictures of space. It was the last of New Horizons' seven instruments to be tested in actual space conditions.
July 19, 2006: Following Asteroid Fly-by, New Horizons Prepares for Jupiter Encounter
Exactly six months after its January 19 launch, and with nine years to go before its closest approach to Pluto in June of 2015, New Horizons is "screaming its way across the solar system" said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute. Moving at 70,000 kilometers (43,500 miles) per hour, New Horizons is crossing the solar system faster than anything that has ever been launched said Stern, and it will approach Jupiter and its satellites only 13 months after launch. To get an idea of just how fast this is, consider that the Jupiter orbiter Galileo, launched in 1989, took six years to arrive at its destination.
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