NASA’s Spacecraft To Make First-ever Visit To Pluto In Less Than A Year

The US space agency NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will make the first-ever visit to Pluto in less than a year from now. This would potentially revolutionize scientists' understanding of the dwarf planet.

Pluto orbits the sun at an average distance of 3.65 billion miles. As the dwarf planet is so far away many questions about the its composition and activity remain unaddressed. Scientists believe New Horizons spacecraft will answer some of those questions when it flies by Pluto on July 15, 2015.

Adriana Ocampo, program executive for NASA's New Frontiers program, said in a statement, "Many predictions have been made by the science community, including possible rings, geyser eruptions, and even lakes." He also believes that the findings will surprise them beyond their imagination.

Pluto, which orbits the sun once every 248 years, lies outside the reach of most visible instruments. NASA's famous Hubble Space Telescope had captured the best images of Pluto, showing its spherical shape and reddish color. Over the years, scientists have witnessed certain changes in the dwarf planet's color patterns. These changes hint that something is happening there, but no one has answer to what exactly it is.

By late April 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will be close enough to Pluto and its moons to capture pictures comparable to those of Hubble. The spacecraft will make a close flyby of the icy world on July 14, 2015, ultimately zooming within about 6,200 miles of its surface.

NASA has launched New Horizons in 2006. According to a study, two new moons have been discovered orbiting Pluto, upping the total known satellite count to five: Charon, Nix, Kerberos, Styx and Hydra. It also added that as many as 10 other moons could still await detection in the system.

As the New Horizons probe gets closer and closer to Pluto, the mission team will need to keep watch on the system in case evasive maneuvers are required.
(Image: Wikipedia)