A Look at NASA’s Mission to Pluto

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Here are some surprising details about NASA’s mission to Pluto, set for a Tuesday launch.

-New Horizons will be the fastest spacecraft ever, traveling nearly 100 times the speed of a jetliner. It should reach Earth’s moon in nine hours, Jupiter in 13 months and Pluto in nine years.

-The nuclear fuel powering the spacecraft produces less energy than is used by two 100-watt lightbulbs.

-Once the piano-sized probe reaches Jupiter, it will use that huge planet as a slingshot for an added boost to the outer edge of the solar system.

-New Horizons has two cameras named Ralph and Alice for the bickering couple from television’s “The Honeymooners.” This trip, though, is to Pluto, not “To the moon, Alice!”

-Discovered in 1930, Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system and the only planet classified as an “ice dwarf.” It has three moons.

-Pluto is located in the Kuiper Belt, a mysterious region that lies beyond Neptune at the outer limits of the planetary system. Scientists believe the Kuiper Belt holds clues as to how the outer solar system was formed.

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Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration