New Horizons mission

New Horizons is a NASA mission to explore Pluto and other distant objects in the Solar System. The spacecraft was launched in 2006 and passed Jupiter in March 2007.[1] In September 2008 it has passed beyond Saturn's orbit.[2]

In June 2015, New Horizons passed through the system of Pluto and its five moons. It sent back the first detailed photographs of this object since its discovery. It also sent back many false-color photographs, including one NASA simply cannot or will not explain: frozen carbon monoxide in a prominent plain on the surface.

It is the first mission ever launched to explore Pluto. In its passage it made extensive observations of Pluto and its five moons. On October 27, 2016, it returned the last of the data it had collected from Pluto and its moons.

On 1 January 2019 it will intercept Object 2014 MU 69 in the Kuiper Belt, for a similar reconnaissance.

## Evidence for a young universe[edit]

It was found during the mission that Pluto had far fewer craters than expected, and dwarf planet was also found to have a nitrogen atmosphere that is leaking away at too fast a rate for it to be millions or billions of year old.[3]

## External links[edit]

* \- New Horizons Mission Page

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/news/nh_jupiter_oct09.html
2. ↑ http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php
3. ↑ Pluto’s Young Surface. Answers in Genesis (from Answers Magazine). October 1, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2016.