New Horizon

New Horizon

Why it matters? 

  • Recently, astronomers found that a deceptively simple trick could help the New Horizons spacecraft find its way through space using only two stars. 

What you should know? 

  • The New Horizons mission, NASA's first venture in the New Frontiers programme, was launched in 2006. 

  • The first spacecraft to explore Pluto up close, flying by the dwarf planet and its moons in 2015.  

  • After a nine-year journey, it reached the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth in 2019, the most distant object ever explored up close.  

  • The spacecraft also captured pictures of Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, and Ganymede.