Hubble Does Reconnaissance As New Horizons Prepares To Cross The Kuiper Belt
Tuesday, July 1, 2014 - 16:10
in Astronomy & Space
As you read this, NASA's New Horizons is heading to Pluto. After the marathon probe zooms past Pluto in July of next year, it will travel across the Kuiper Belt, that vast rim of primitive ice bodies left over from the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. What next? It is anticipated that NASA will redirect the to a Kuiper Belt object (KBO) and photograph it up close.That's where Hubble comes in. Before New Horizons arrives, Hubble is looking for the perfect target to be our first up-close look at something inside the Kuiper Belt. It's already found two, proof of concept that Hubble can go forward with a deeper KBO search, covering an area of sky roughly the angular size of the full Moon. read more