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The space adventure > New Horizons I

New Horizons


Credit : NASA/JHU-APL/SwRI
At its closest approach of Jupiter, New Horizons sent images of the planet and its satellites: here Io.

The New Horizons probe was launched on January 19, 2006 to explore the Pluto system and the travel lasted more than nine years until July 2015. The probe used the gravity assistance from Jupiter to reach Pluto and will not stop, having not the necessary energy.

After its flyby of Pluto, the probe will continue towards the Kuiper belt and will try to observe the object (486958) 2014 MU69 in 2019. At that distance from the Sun, Solar energy is no longer sufficient to supply the instruments, so that a nuclear generator was shipped to replace the solar panels.