Dear Friends of Astronomy Space and science,





Watch the launch
The US space agency, Nasa, has successfully launched its New Horizons
mission to Pluto.

The probe lifted off at 1900 GMT aboard an Atlas 5 rocket on a 10-year
journey to the planet, which lies more than five billion km from Earth.

The $700m probe will gather information on Pluto and its moons before - it
is hoped - pressing on to explore other objects in the outer Solar System.

Pluto is the only remaining planet that has never been visited by a
spacecraft.

The spacecraft was launched after being postponed for two consecutive days
due to bad weather and technical difficulties.

On Tuesday, controllers stood down the flight due to high winds at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station pad in Florida.

Then a power failure at the Maryland laboratory managing the mission
forced that launch attempt to be halted.

Slingshot manoeuvre

Sending up the probe before 3 February means it will be in position to
swing by Jupiter on its way to Pluto.

New Horizons will use Jupiter's gravity to pick up speed in a slingshot
manoeuvre.




Mission Guide: New Horizons
This will increase the probe's speed away from the Sun by nearly 4km/s,
allowing the spacecraft to reach the ninth planet by July 2015.

If the launch had been pushed beyond the 3 February, the probe would have
been required to take a direct route to Pluto, arriving in 2018 at the earliest.

Some astronomers say Pluto is not a true planet at all, and should be
classed instead alongside the small, icy objects which make up the region of
space known as the Kuiper Belt.

This region, which lies beyond Neptune, consists of perhaps tens of
thousands of icy objects spread out between 30 and 50 times the distance between
the Earth and the Sun.

Double planet

Pluto is thought by some to form a "double planet" with its companion
Charon.

New Horizons will fly by Pluto and Charon on the same day. The
spacecraft's seven instruments will carry out detailed mapping of Pluto's
surface features, composition and atmosphere.

"The probe will map the composition of materials on the surface of Pluto
[and Charon], which will help tell us what molecules were present during the
formation of this system," Dr Stephen Lowry of Queen's University in Belfast,
UK, told the BBC News website.

After the Pluto encounter, it is up to Nasa to decide whether to grant the
spacecraft an extended mission. Should this happen, mission scientists plan to
send New Horizons to visit two Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) with diameters of 50km
(30 miles) or more.

Scientists believe they can learn about the evolution of the Solar System
by studying the Kuiper Belt since it possesses debris left over form its
formation.


By yours Dr.BHUDIA-Science Group Of INDIA.
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/venustransit_2004/
President:"Kutch Science Foundation".
Founder :"Kutch Amateurs Astronomers Club - Bhuj - Kutch".
Life Member:"kutch Itihaas Parishad".
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Do visit our ABOVE Clubs/Groups of Science club of India, Science
Group of India.




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