(07-14-2015, 01:34 PM)riley Wrote: That is just crazy - the thing has been flying for 9 1/2 years.
The size of the craft is compared to a grand piano and weighs 478 kilograms (1,054 lb), which is small by current standards. That includes a nuclear power source and fuel for adjusting course and position. It also runs on low power. It is a bare bones spacecraft, which was necessary to get the speed necessary to get it to Pluto in a reasonable amount of time. One speed comparision: It took 3 days for the Apollo mission reach the moon, while New Horizons took 8.5 hours to pass the moon.
In other astronomical news...
(02-09-2014, 07:35 PM)john Wrote: The first exoplanet (outside the solar system) was identified in 1995. Here is the current count from Nasa's Exoplanet Archive:
1,035 Planets around 774 Stars
179 Systems with Multiple Planets
It has been 17 months since that post and the Exoplanet archive now provides these numbers:
1858 confirmed planets
468 multiplanet systems
On average more than ten new planets orbiting around other suns are being discovered each week.