The Farthest Spacecraft Ever: New Horizons Awakens for More Deep Space Discoveries
A machine built by humans is currently waking up nearly six billion miles away from our planet? NASA just brought the New Horizons spacecraft out of a hibernation period that lasted 321 days - this probe is currently traveling through the very edge of our solar system where things are cold, dark and mostly unexplored.
Engineers confirm that the spacecraft is in good health after its long sleep. Every status report during the hibernation showed "green" lights, which means the systems are working exactly as they should. Now that it is awake, the probe is starting to send back data it gathered while drifting through the silence of space.
A Long Nap in Deep Space
You might wonder why a spacecraft needs to sleep at all - Hibernation helps NASA save power and reduces the wear on the internal parts of the machine. During this time, New Horizons was not just sitting still - it was moving through the outer reaches of space while its main computers stayed quiet.
Now that the mission team has awakened the probe, they are busy checking all the instruments. You can imagine the tension in the control room as they waited for a signal to return. Because the probe is so far away, it takes a long time for any message to reach Earth.
Measuring the Great Distance from Home
New Horizons is one of the fastest objects ever launched from Earth, leaving our atmosphere at about 36 400 miles per hour back in 2006. It is now roughly 5.9 billion miles away from us - this distance is about 64 times further than the distance between the Earth and the sun.
To help you visualize its journey, consider these milestones
- Launched from Earth in 2006 to study the outer planets.
- Flew past Jupiter in 2007 to gain speed from the planet's gravity.
- Reached Pluto in 2015, giving us the first clear photos of the dwarf planet.
- Passed the icy object Arrokoth in 2019 in the deepest part of the solar system.
Exploring the Icy Secrets of the Kuiper Belt
The spacecraft is currently located in a region called the Kuiper Belt - this area is filled with icy rocks and frozen materials that are leftovers from when the solar system first formed. Scientists are very interested in these objects because they are like time capsules from billions of years ago.
New Horizons is looking for more objects like Arrokoth, which looks a bit like two reddish peanuts stuck together. The probe is also measuring the amount of hydrogen gas in this distant region - these measurements help you understand what the environment is like at the very border of our sun's reach.
Following the Path of the Voyager Probes
There are only two other working spacecraft further away than New Horizons - Voyager 1 & Voyager 2. While the Voyagers are older and have traveled more miles, New Horizons carries much newer and more sensitive tools, which means it can see things in higher detail than the older probes could.
All three of the machines are heading toward the heliopause - this is the place where the wind from the sun hits the space between the stars. It is a thick, hot wall of plasma that marks the true end of the sun's influence. New Horizons still has to travel about twice as far as it already has to reach this finish line.
What Comes Next for the Mission
The mission team is currently downloading a large amount of data that the probe stored while it was asleep. You have to be patient when working with this spacecraft because each message takes nearly nine hours to travel one way. As the probe moves further away, this delay will only get longer.
In the coming months, New Horizons will continue its search for new icy worlds to study. Scientists hope they can find one more large object to fly past before the fuel runs low. For now, the spacecraft is healthy, active and ready to show you parts of the universe that no one has ever seen before.
FAQ
How long was the spacecraft asleep?
New Horizons was in hibernation for 321 days before NASA woke it up recently.
How far away is New Horizons right now?
The probe is about 5.9 billion miles from Earth, which is 64 times the distance between the Earth and the sun.
Is New Horizons the furthest spacecraft ever?
No, the Voyager 1 & Voyager 2 probes are currently further away but New Horizons is the third furthest working machine in space.
How long does it take to send a message to the probe?
It takes approximately 8 hours and 52 minutes for a signal to travel from Earth to the spacecraft.
References
- NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Wakes from Hibernation in Good Health
- New Horizons - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- NASA's New Horizons Emerges from Longest Hibernation Yet
- New Horizons - NASA Science
- New Horizons - Wikipedia
- NASA's New Horizons spacecraft awakens from yearlong hibernation