5 Years Ago, New Horizons Reached Pluto—and We Never Stopped Learning
Here's everything the intrepid spacecraft has taught us about the distant dwarf planet.
On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft zipped past Pluto, snapping stunning pictures of the dwarf planet and its moons. It took almost 10 years for the spacecraft, which launched on January 19, 2006, to get there.
The flyby revealed a wealth of information about the icy world, including its bright blue atmosphere, massive nitrogen glacier, and young surface, and shed light on the nearby moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra. Five years later, we celebrate nine of the groundbreaking discoveries that New Horizons made.
The spacecraft is still racing across our solar system and has taken detailed images of Arrokoth, a distant Kuiper Belt object. We're excited to see what the hardy instrument spies next.
Here's everything the intrepid spacecraft has taught us about the distant dwarf planet.