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| This artist’s concept shows NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its 2015 encounter with Pluto and its moon, Charon. view full size image |
New Horizons is a NASA spacecraft on its way to the dwarf planet Pluto.
It scooted by Jupiter in 2007, and will pass by Pluto in July 2015
before possibly heading farther into the Kuiper Belt — a massive zone of
icy bodies beyond Neptune.
Investigators with the Hubble Space Telescope have identified a few
targets for the spacecraft after it zooms by Pluto and its moons, but
the mission extension depends on how well New Horizons is performing at
that time and if it can receive approval in NASA's budget.
When the spacecraft reaches Pluto, it will be only the fifth one to head so far away from Earth (the other ones being Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, and Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which are either in the outer solar system or in the case of Voyager 1, interstellar space.)
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