Pluto in a Minute: What Is New Horizons Going to Do After Pluto? скачать в хорошем качестве

Pluto in a Minute: What Is New Horizons Going to Do After Pluto?

New Horizons spent nine years getting to Pluto only to leave the system after a few hours. So what's next? This is Pluto in a Minute. The New Horizons mission was born from a 2003 decadal survey, that is, a survey of what should be done in planetary science for the coming ten years. In that decadal survey the National Academy of Sciences ranked exploring Pluto and another Kuiper Belt Objects as a top priority because the Kuiper Belt and the bodies that lie within that region are thought to be the most primitive and untouched material in our solar system. Exploring the Kuiper Belt is the best way to address the question of whether objects in that region brought volatiles and water into the inner solar system to planets like Earth. Given its current trajectory, there are two possible Kuiper Belt objects New Horizons can visit. In the fall of 2015, the team will pick one of them and then burn the engines to set it on a course for that object. The goal is to just do another flyby sometime around 2018-2019. But exploring a second Kuiper Belt Object is contingent on getting a mission extension. In 2016, the New Horizons team will prepare a proposal for this extended mission for NASA, and if it is accepted, that mission will begin in 2017. But for the moment Pluto is still taking centre stage with a lot more data coming down in the weeks and months ahead. So to learn more about Pluto check out the New Horizons websites, join the conversation online with the hashtag #PlutoFlyby, and be sure to come back here for more Pluto in a Minute. http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons http://pluto.jhuapl.edu