When the spacecraft New Horizons was launched in January 2006, Pluto was still considered as a Planet of the Solar System. Now it is counted among the list Dwarf Planets. But, this does not reduce the charm of the mission to the most debated body of the Solar System - Pluto.
U.S. has made visits to every planet of the Solar System except the (dwarf) planet Pluto. So as to complete phase-1 study about the Solar System it was extremely important to dedicate a mission for it.
Well, this spacecraft is not going to Land on the surface of Pluto but will examine it very closely and send back the gathered data to us. Along with studying the details of Pluto, the spacecraft will also study Charon, Pluto's satellite. Once this is done, the spacecraft will continue its journey beyond Pluto in to the zone of Kuiper Belt. This is an area which is very less studied and less known. It consists of millions of smal sized rocks to mountain sized boulders and even bigger objects.
Close encounters with these heavenly objects will reveal a lot about the formation of the solar system and will give many clues related to the condition of the early ages of the solar system and the planet formation.
New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever launched from the surface of the Earth.
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