Closer and closer to Pluto – rmf24.pl

There are only two weeks left to one of the most anticipated events in the history of the solar system research, the New Horizons spacecraft next to Pluto. NASA announces that the probe has planned course correction yesterday, a little too accelerated so that on July 14 to fly about 12.5 thousand kilometers above the surface of the dwarf planet. Photos sent through the probe shows greater detail in the surface of Pluto and its moon, Charon, orbiting a common center of gravity.

Pluto and Charon on the image taken by the probe New Horizons

/ NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute /

The probe New Horizons began touring in January 2006, is the fifth built by human object which beyond the orbit of Neptune, but the first to come close to the area of ​​Pluto and its moons. It is expected that, inter alia, to send accurate pictures of the surface of Pluto and help verify hypotheses about its atmosphere.

That maneuver was the third and last of the series, which was to clarify the trajectory of the probe before meeting with Pluto. The engine fired for 23 seconds, which increased the speed of New Horizons of … 27 cm / s, less than a km / h. Although at a speed of about 50,000 km / h change it seems minimal, but its importance is crucial. Without it – as emphasized Yanping Guo Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel – probe would find 20 seconds too early to spot which is about 184 km from the point where it has to measure the properties of Pluto’s atmosphere. This measurement must be closely coordinated with radio signals sent from Earth.

From the precision spacecraft also depends on the quality of its observations. For instructions on what and when to examine are stored in her computer and they will be executed according to the plan. You can not let that instead of Pluto probe photographed the empty space. That is why, based on recent observations of both radio and optical correction was decided the course.

At the moment, New Horizons is about 16 million kilometers from the target, nearly 4.8 billion kilometers from Earth. The radio signal from Earth needs up to 4.5 hours to get there, making it impossible to control the vehicle on a regular basis. For instructions about the latest maneuver was sent on Sunday, on Monday at 17:01 Polish time the probe fired engines, the data confirm the correctness of maneuver to flow into the mission control center in APL via the NASA Deep Space Network yesterday at 11:30.

“We are already in the final straight” – says Glen Fountain of APL. “Every day is getting better, and the excitement grows.” “The mission control team and the probe itself carried out the maneuver to perfection” – adds the head of the research team, Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Right now, we’re going precisely measure intended path approach to the goal.”