NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has made history several times since its launch in 2006. At the time, Pluto was a planet, but it had become a dwarf planet when New Horizons sent back the first close-up photos in 2015. After that, the spacecraft he flew deeper into the Kuiper Belt and delivered the first images of Arrokoth. . Now, it is only the fifth man-made object to reach a distance of 50 astronomical units. In celebration, New Horizons took a photo of the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Well, he tried, but Voyager 1 is still in the lead.
New Horizons is now joining the 50 AU club with Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. It would have taken too much fuel to slow down New Horizons at Pluto, so it continued to make trucks. This gave him the opportunity to check out the fascinating object of the Kuiper belt (KBO) known as Arrokoth, which he aired on New Year’s Day 2019.
An astronomical unit (AU) is equal to the distance between the Earth and the sun, about 150 million kilometers. Pluto is only 30 AU away, and New Horizons has only been there in nine years. The 2006 launch set a record for the fastest in history, and this record is maintained to this day. And it’s still one of the fastest things I’ve ever built. It has enough speed to get rid of the solar system, but it will never exceed Voyager 1. New Horizons travels at 13 kilometers per second, but Voyager’s multiple assistance accelerated it to 17 kilometers per second.
Location Voyager 1, as seen by New Horizons.
After reaching 50 AU, NASA turned the New Horizon camera to Voyager 1 and took a photo (above). You can’t see the 1977 spacecraft, which is about a trillion times too weak. However, it would be right in the middle, as indicated by the circle.
New Horizons is still healthy, and NASA hopes to be able to intercept another KBO. Teams on Earth use powerful telescopes such as the Japanese Subaru Observatory to scan the spacecraft’s path to see if there are viable targets. Whether there is another KBO in the future of the well, it has a long life ahead of it. NASA will release the updated New Horizons software this summer to enhance its scientific capabilities. Its nuclear battery should keep it until the end of the 2030s.
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