NASA has confirmed the success of the mission of the New Horizons probe, which had managed to get very close to Pluto Tuesday, July 14, and collecting a lot of data that will in More on this planet.
The probe, which is passed only 12 400 kilometers after traveling for nine years and 5 billion kilometers, sent a message confirming that it had managed to approach safely of the dwarf planet. “We have received telemetry sent by the probe” , said from central command Laurel (Maryland, is) Alice Bowman, the project leader, triggering an explosion of joy among his colleagues . “This is a great moment in the history of humanity” , was ecstatic John Grunsfeld, NASA’s head of mission.
Although the risk collision was low – estimated at two out of 10 000 – the technicians of the US space agency expected that “home phone call” forward because it confirms that all is well and that the scientific data . were harvested on schedule
New Horizons is the fastest probe sent by man in space: it was close to Pluto over 49 000 km / h and this speed collision even with debris the size of a grain of rice could be catastrophic.
During a New Horizons few hours window has stored up pictures and information about Pluto, which is known for the moment few things: the probe was fully configured to perform the data collection and she could not communicate simultaneously with the Earth technicians
She only. interrupted 22 minutes to 30 pm French time to send 15-minute telemetry data. More than four hours were needed for these data sent from the confines of our solar system to manage NASA technicians.
The received data showed that the probe is still in perfect condition and that it thus normally able to complete its abundant data collection. She will start sending these precious materials that will answer many questions about Pluto from Wednesdays. It will have a total of 16 months to transmit all the data it has collected during his historical overview of the dwarf planet. But new photos of the planet must begin to arrive on Wednesday.
“The probe is full of images. We look forward. We have opened a whole new area of the solar system “, noted Mr. Grunsfeld.
New Horizons continues to present his route on the other side of Pluto, then go see the belt Kuiper, a huge pile of debris beyond the orbit of Neptune.
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