Interesting Facts about Earth’s First Voyage to Pluto

Facts About the NASA Horizons Mission to Pluto

• Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year old American Astronomer
• Half of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes are on-board the New Horizons. The NASA team is hoping to bring Clyde up close and personal with the Planet he discovered to “say hello”.
• Inscribed on the canister holding Clyde’s ashes it says: “Interned herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the solar system’s ‘third zone.'”
• New Horizons spacecraft started its voyage to Pluto on January 19, 2006
• Ironically, a short time after the New Horizons launch, the Planet Pluto was demoted from “Planet” to “Dwarf Planet”.
• The New Horizons spacecraft is the fastest spacecraft ever to leave the Earth, traveling at 31,000 miles per hour.
• New Horizons passed 7,750 miles above the surface of Pluto on July 14, 2015
• Regardless of the name, “Planet” or “Dwarf Planet”, investigating Pluto and the unexplored Kuiper Belt is critical to completing our understanding of the solar system we live in
• Pluto exists in a new region yet to be explored by scientists called the Kuiper belt.
• The Kuiper Belt is important because Scientists believe the objects residing in the Kuiper Belt “…will tell us a lot about the formation and evolution of the solar system…Studying these objects gives us our best window into the time-frame of the formation of the solar system.”
• Currently, the solar system is believed to have been formed 4.6 billion years ago
• The travel time for a one way trip to Pluto traveling at 31,000 miles per hour took the Horizon 9.5 years

Other oddities included on-board the New Horizons Spacecraft:

• A CD with 434,00 people’s name included. Part of the “Send Your Name to Pluto” event to be part of Earth’s First Journey to Pluto.
• Two stamps; one stating “Pluto: Not Yet Explored” and one stating “New Horizons Mission to Pluto”
• Two versions of the US Flag
• A Florida State quarter to represent the launch and a Maryland state quarter to represent the state New Horizons was built in
• A small piece cut from Spaceship One
• A CD with all the pictures of New Horizons project personnel

Sources:

Image: NASA
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-01-05/after-long-cold-journey-nasas-new-horizons-probe-has-pluto-its-sights
http://www.universetoday.com/20155/stowaways-revealed-on-new-horizons-spacecraft/