Read also: NASA will explore Pluto and the outer solar system
The alarm has occurred at 21 am (Paris time), but it took a few hours for confirmation of the proper functioning of the procedure. At that distance, radio signals put four hours and 25 minutes to reach Earth.
LAST OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM UNEXPLORED REGION
The probe is expected to begin observations on 15 January. It will be closer to Pluto on 14 July. Forty times farther from the sun than Earth, the planet is in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system located beyond Neptune, composed of thousands of icy bodies. This is the last unexplored region of the solar system.
Discovered in 1930, Pluto is a mystery partly because of its small size. Its radius is only 1 190 km against nearly 6400 km for the Earth. The astronauts are wondering how this planet may have formed beyond the giant planets Jupiter (70000 km radius), Saturn (60 000 km), Uranus (25 000 km) and Neptune (25 000 km).
In 2006, after the discovery of other mini-planets in the Kuiper belt, Pluto lost its status as the ninth planet in the solar system to be reduced to the status of dwarf planet.
Read our explanations: The International Astronomical Union decays Pluto of its status as a planet
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