There is a tiny spacecraft racing towards the most distant reaches of the solar system. It as known as New Horizons, and it started its journey nearly a decade ago.
Launching in January of 2006, New Horizons has been making its way across our corner of the universe for the last 9 and a half years. It has been slowly approaching Pluto as time wanders on; however, when it finally reaches this tiny dwarf planet, the spacecraft will be anything but slow. It will pass Pluto and its moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx) travelling at an amazing 26,7000 miles an hour (43,000 km/h). It will then continue its path into the Kuiper belt, a disc-shaped region of volatile icy compounds (like methane, ammonia, and water)—the home of the comets.
Now, the New Horizons spacecraft is only two weeks away from our first-ever flyby of the tiny dwarf planet. Mission team members will give an update during a press conference today at 11:30 a.m. EDT (15:30 GMT). You can watch live below.
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
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