Monday, November 16, 2015 at 4:00

Duane G1B30: Note location change!!

Alan Stern, SwRI/Boulder

"New Horizons: The Exploration of the Pluto System"

Abstract:

New Horizons is NASA's mission to explore the Pluto system and the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft was launched on 19 January 2006 and made the first exploration of the Pluto system this year, culminating with a flyby inside the orbits of all five of Pluto’s moons on 14 July 2015. The spacecraft carries sophisticated panchromatic and color imagers, IR and UV mapping spectrometers, a radio science package, two in situ plasma instruments, and a dust counter. I will describe the history of this mission, the science behind it, the capabilities of payload, our encounter with planet Pluto, and the major scientific discoveries made to date. I’ll also briefly outline the extended mission we hope to fly across the Kuiper Belt.

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