Astronomy and Astrophysics Seminars

NASA’s New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond

by Dr. Henry Throop (Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, USA)

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at TIFR ( AG66 )
Description
After a nine-year journey though space, astronomers visited Pluto for
the first time in July 2015, using a robotic NASA spacecraft called New
Horizons. Despite being a cold and small icy body, New Horizons found Pluto’s
surface to be young, dynamic, and varied. Planetary Scientist Dr. Henry Throop
will tell the story of this NASA spacecraft mission, from its
development and construction,
through launch in 2006, to its successful encounter with Pluto,
and plans for onward encounters with bodies in the distant Kuiper Belt.