NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, humanity's first attempt to send a probe to Pluto, is just now crossing the orbit of Uranus. It will cross Neptune's orbit in August, 2014, and reach Pluto in July, 2015.
After the encounter with Pluto and its three moons, New Horizons will proceed into the Kuiper Belt, a realm of frozen worlds, some of which might be quite large. Indeed, some astronomers classify Pluto as a Kuiper Belt object. The New Horizons management team will soon begin searching for targets in the Belt that the spacecraft can visit after it leaves Pluto.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
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