LAUREL, Md., July 13 (UPI) — At 7:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, the New Horizons space probe is scheduled to come within 7,800 miles of Pluto, providing NASA scientists with the clearest photographs and most detailed measurements they’ve ever seen of the dwarf planet.
The probe will fly by the Pluto at a speed of about 31,000 mph, but it’s not too fast to snap some detailed views before heading on its way to explore another object located farther away in the Kuiper belt.
The New Horizons craft launched in 2006 and has so far traveled about three billion miles in outer space. As it has gotten closer to Pluto, its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager has transmitted back dozens of black-and-white images, providing progressively sharper photos.
As of Monday morning, New Horizons was within the planetary system of Pluto.
“Fasten your seat belts — New Horizons has arrived at the Pluto System,” Alan Stern, New Horizons’ principal investigator, said at a briefing Monday.
As the craft makes its closest pass of Pluto, NASA will be providing a live stream of scientists at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., The Verge reported.
The live stream is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., and by 7:49 a.m., New Horizons should make its closest approach to Pluto. NASA won’t know during this time, though, whether the flyby was successful. It won’t start receiving information from the probe until about 8:53 p.m.
There’s about a 4-hour communication delay between Pluto and Earth because of distance alone, but there will be an additional wait because New Horizons’ equipment will be pointed away from Earth in order to get the best readings and information from Pluto during the flyby. Once it has completed taking measurements and photographs, the probe will face Earth again in order to transmit information, the Washington Post reported.
High-resolution images of Charon are scheduled to be released at 7 a.m. Wednesday, and photos of Pluto are expected to be released by 3:25 p.m. Wednesday.
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