NASA spacecraft prepping for Pluto flyby

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has finally started the first science phase of its mission to get up close and personal with the dwarf planet Pluto.

The journey has been epic – 9.5 years across more than 3 billion miles of space – the longest distance to a primary target that any spacecraft has ever flown.

This week, instruments aboard New Horizons began measuring the dust and charged particles in Pluto’s environment, and in just a few days, the spacecraft will start photographing the dwarf planet using a long-range lens.

The images will provide the New Horizons team with more information about the dynamics between Pluto and its five known moons, which in turn will help navigators guide the spacecraft to a close encounter with the icy body in mid-July.

At the time of its closest approach, on July 14, New Horizons will fly within 7,700 miles of Pluto, revealing the topography and composition of this distant world in dazzling detail.

As of now, the best image we have of Pluto is fuzzy and pixelated. After New Horizons’ flyby, we should be able to see mountains and craters on the dwarf planet’s surface.

The New Horizons mission was launched in 2006.

When it left Earth, it was the fastest spacecraft in our solar system, but it had a long trip ahead – Pluto is 4.67 billion miles from Earth. At that distance, a signal from New Horizons moving at the speed of light will still take more than four hours to get back to Earth.