r/IAmA • u/NewHorizons_Pluto NASA New Horizons • Jul 14 '15

We're scientists on the NASA New Horizons team, which is at Pluto. Ask us anything about the mission & Pluto! Science

UPDATE: It's time for us to sign off for now. Thanks for all the great questions. Keep following along for updates from New Horizons over the coming hours, days and months. We will monitor and try to answer a few more questions later.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is at Pluto. After a decade-long journey through our solar system, New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto Tuesday, about 7,750 miles above the surface -- making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth.

For background, here's the NASA New Horizons website with the latest: http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

Answering your questions today are:

  • Curt Niebur, NASA Program Scientist
  • Jillian Redfern, Senior Research Analyst, New Horizons Science Operations
  • Kelsi Singer, Post-Doc, New Horizons Science Team
  • Amanda Zangari, Post-Doc, New Horizons Science Team
  • Stuart Robbins, Research Scientist, New Horizons Science Team

Proof: https://twitter.com/NASASocial/status/620986926867288064

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6

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '15

Do you know of any possible Kuiper Belt Objects that new horizons could visit in the near future?

11

u/NewHorizons_Pluto NASA New Horizons Jul 14 '15

We are deciding between two objects and will announce in the fall.

-AZ

1

u/tenkendojo Jul 14 '15

Is Eris a possibility?

2

u/mikeyouse Jul 14 '15

Nope, they were originally discussing three targets, but are now down to two to choose from - neither of which have 'real' names.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/10151024-finally-new-horizons-has-a-kbo.html

2

u/theluggagekerbin Jul 14 '15

with Eris, they will basically need a plane change and I don't imagine it's possible with the amount of delta v left in the spacecraft.

EDIT: a typo