New Horizons Mission

New Horizons is a spacecraft that explores the edge of our solar system. NASA launched it in 2006. It flew past Pluto in 2015 and took the first close-up photos ever. Before this mission, Pluto was just a tiny dot in pictures.

Flying to Pluto

New Horizons traveled more than nine years to reach Pluto. It is one of the fastest spacecraft ever built. The probe zoomed past Pluto at over 30,000 miles per hour. It could not stop, so it had to take pictures very quickly. The photos showed mountains, ice, and a big heart shape on Pluto.

Beyond Pluto

After Pluto, New Horizons kept flying deeper into space. In 2019, it flew past a small icy world called Arrokoth. This object looks like two balls stuck together. New Horizons is now so far from Earth that it takes hours for its signals to reach us. It is still sending back data from far away.

Fun Facts

• New Horizons carries some of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto.
• The spacecraft is about the size of a baby grand piano.
• It took more than 9 years to reach Pluto.

Did You Know?

New Horizons found that Pluto has blue skies and red snow, which surprised scientists.