After nine years and a journey of 5 billion kilometres, NASA’s New Horizons probe is to become the first spacecraft to visit the icy dwarf planet Pluto.
The piano-sized craft will also study the Kuiper Belt, the mysterious zone believed to contain materials formed at the birth of the solar system.
E&T news has previously reported on New Horizons’ computer glitches and Nasa’s tweaks to guide the craft on its Pluto approach.
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