Humanity just completed its nearly 10-year mission to Pluto
And NASA couldn't be prouder.
For decades, the Plutonian system was the only one in the solar system unexplored by the space agency.
Now, NASA has become the first to ever reach the dwarf planet and its moons and can finally fill in that empty check box marked "Pluto."
The atmosphere in the mission operations center at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory was electric as the final seconds ticked down to zero.
At that very moment, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was at its closest approach to Pluto, within 7,600 miles of the surface.
The mission operations center was excited, to say the least when that final moment came:
The next second, it was about eight miles farther, speeding away at over 30,000 miles per hour.
As the celebrations commence, Stern and the rest of the New Horizons team know that the real test has yet to come.
They meticulously calculated the spacecraft's flyby past Pluto down to the very second. So, at exactly 7:49:57 am ET, they knew that New Horizons should be zipping past Pluto collecting enough scientific data to keep the team busy until next year.
However, the team can only hope at this time that the flyby was successful.Because the instruments on board New Horizons are busy collecting as much data as possible, the spacecraft cannot sacrifice a single second to inform its team of its status. There's even a tiny chance that something could have gone wrong with the flyby.
The scientists won't know, however, until 8:53 pm ET this evening. That's when they expect to receive confirmation from New Horizons to learn about how the flyby went, what data was collected, and what condition the spacecraft is in.
Therefore, while the celebrations this morning mark the exact moment of the historic flyby, there's still a second celebration in order later tonight.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- One of the world's only 5-star airlines seems to be considering asking business-class passengers to bring their own cutlery
- From terrace to table: 8 Edible plants you can grow in your home
- India fourth largest military spender globally in 2023: SIPRI report
- New study forecasts high chance of record-breaking heat and humidity in India in the coming months
- Gold plunges ₹1,450 to ₹72,200, silver prices dive by ₹2,300
- Strong domestic demand supporting India's growth: Morgan Stanley