New Horizons is closing on its target Pluto (and Charon) and we should be seeing detailed photos and and receiving data as to its make up in early 2015.
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Currently in a hibernation state, New Horizons will awake and begin preparing for its encounter with Pluto on Dec. 6. The actual flyby will begin in January with the spacecraft’s closest encounter occurring on July 15, 2015. A scheduled trajectory adjustment burn was not deemed necessary and has left the craft with additional fuel.
The additional fuel has NASA officials searching for additional Kuiper Belt objects for New Horizons to explore. To identify potential targets, officials used the Hubble telescope to locate objects of interest. These targets had to be in line with Pluto so that additional use of fuel would not be required. The Hubble data identified three additional objects that will be tracked to ascertain their orbital path.
New Horizons crossed Neptune’s orbital path on Aug. 25. On Sept. 12 NASA, using the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, began its initial preparatory testing of the approaching Pluto system. Hydra, a small moon of Pluto, was detected. It was not anticipated to view the moon until early in 2015. Locating Hydra this early in the process bodes well for the team’s ability to locate potential unknown moons or planetary rings.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/10/new-horiz ... ore-pluto/
This is going to be fascinating and not just for what is discovered about Pluto as the Hubble space telescope has been spotting further targets in the Kuiper belt for the craft to move onto once Pluto is surveyed.
The Huygens probe landing on Titan in 2005 was a remarkable achievement and New Horizons, though it will not land, is bound to make some fascinating discoveries too.