spacetoday.net: New Horizons flies past Jupiter

Posted: Wed, Feb 28, 2007, 8:10 PM ET (0110 GMT)
New Horizons flyby of Jupiter illustration (NASA)

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter early Wednesday, performing a flyby that will allow the spacecraft to continue on its journey to the dwarf planet Pluto. New Horizons passed within 2.3 million kilometers of Jupiter at closest approach at 12:43 am EST (0543 GMT) Wednesday, passing through the "aim point" that puts the spacecraft on course to continue to Pluto. The flyby was a gravity assist maneuver that increased the spacecraft's speed by 14,000 km/h. New Horizons, launched in January 2006, will fly past Pluto and its large moon Charon in July 2015 and then continue out into the Kuiper Belt. While the flyby's primary purpose was to put the spacecraft on course for Pluto, scientists used the spacecraft's cameras and other instruments to study Jupiter and its largest moons during the flyby.