NASA’s Jet propulsion laboratory launched space probe named New Horizons to explore the farthest planet[Pluto] of Solar system in 2006. After completing the flyby mission on July 2015, New horizons is now approaching towards the Kuiper belt object named 2014 MU69. Since then it has already crossed half of the way towards the object.
In their recent report on Sunday 8 p.m. EDT(0000 GMT), NASA has announced that New Horizons is about 486.19 million miles(~782.45 million kilometers) ahead from Pluto and at the middle position between 2014 MU69. NASA officials are expecting, within Friday 5:24 p.m. EDT on April 7, the spacecraft will also reach another halfway in time in this trip as it is predicted to approach in MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019.
The principal investigator of New Horizons Alan Stern from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, said in a statement,“It's fantastic to have completed half the journey to our next flyby. That flyby will set the record for the most distant world ever explored in the history of civilization”.There is a difference of five days between halfway markers of distance and time due to the effect of Sun’s gravitational tug on the spacecraft.
Before passing the midpoint in time, New Horizons has crossed the midpoint of distance. The main reason behind the delay is, the spacecraft has become slower as it pulls away from Sun’s gravity. According to Space, the space probe is now traveling at 32,000 mph (51,500 km/h). While in the beginning, it was moving about 36,000 mph (58,000 km/h) of speed which defined New Horizon as the fastest spacecraft in history.
New Horizons will also explore more than two dozens of other Kuiper Belt Objects(KBO) in addition to 2014 MU69. NASA Officials also confirmed that all of the instruments are still in good condition even after traveling 3.5 billion miles from Earth. To avoid any damage and internal faculty, scientists kept the probe in sleep mode until Dec. 6, 2014. Now they are planning to do the same to maintain the condition for future explorations. Two hours before hitting the halfway mark on April 7 scientists would turn the New Horizons into hibernation for 157 days.
