Space Missions to Pluto
Mission |
Country |
Launch Date |
Arrival Date |
Type |
Encounter Characteristics |
New Horizons |
USA |
January 19, 2006 |
2015 |
Flyby |
The spacecraft will fly within about 11 thousand km of Pluto and
27 thousand km of Charon. It will make observations
during a 6-month period around closest approach. If all goes well, it will
visit one or two Kuiper Belt Objects
after the Pluto flyby. |
An Overview of Space Exploration
You might also be interested in:
Pluto is a frigid ball of ice and rock that orbits far from the Sun on the frozen fringes of our Solar System. Considered a planet, though a rather odd one, from its discovery in 1930 until 2006, it was
...moreCharon is by far the largest of Pluto's // Call the moon count function defined in the document head print_moon_count('pluto'); known moons. Charon was discovered by the American astronomer James Christy
...more Of all the planets and moons in the solar system, Pluto and Charon are the two which resemble each other the most closely. They are almost the same size, and they are very close together. They are so
...more Pluto is so far away, and has never been explored. Questions to answer about Pluto include the following: What are the geologic features of the surface. (pictures of the surface) If there are bare spots,
...moreIt may seem hard to believe that Pluto could have an atmosphere because it is so cold at 39 AU, where Pluto resides, but it does. Because there are times when Pluto is closer to the sun than is Neptune
...moreNo one knows whether or not Pluto has a magnetosphere. Scientists were very surprised to find that Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede had a magnetosphere because it is hard to explain how an icy body can develop
...morePluto has // Call the moon count function defined in the document head print_moon_count('pluto'); known moons. Charon, the largest by far, was discovered in 1978 by the American astronomer James Christy.
...more