LAUREL (AFP) – The NASA confirmed Tuesday the success of the mission of the New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier managed to approach Pluto and collected numerous data which disclose more about this planet.
The ship came to only 12,400 kilometers of Pluto am (Mexico Central Time), subsequently disconnected from NASA to be gathering information about the planet, and about 19:55 hours Local reestablished contact with the agency.
It was necessary more than four hours for the data sent from the edge of the solar system came to NASA technicians.
The received data showed that the probe is in perfect condition and usually conducted their data collection.
New Horizons, who traveled nine years and 5,000 million kilometers, sent a message in which he confirmed that managed to rub smoothly dwarf planet.
“We received good telemetry sent by the probe” he said from the command center of Laurel (Maryland, this) Alice Bowman, head of the project, prompting an explosion of joy among colleagues.
As of Wednesday, the probe will start sending materials that will answer many questions about Pluto. It will take 16 months to transmit all data.
New Horizons is now directed to observe the Kuiper Belt-the wide ring of debris surrounding the solar system.
New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, before it began the great debate about Pluto. In August of the same year, the International Astronomical Union (IUA, for its acronym in English) he reclassified as a dwarf to consider it different from the rest of the planet in the Solar System.
On board, the ship carries a part of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the American astronomer discovered the existence of the celestial body 85 years ago.
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