NASA's New Horizons Pluto spacecraft is still exploring, 50 AU from the sun

[Admin]

New Horizons is about to reach some very rarefied space, but don't expect the NASA probe to rest on its considerable laurels.

NASA's New Horizons Pluto spacecraft is still exploring, 50 AU from the sun : Read more

 

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"On Saturday night (April 17), New Horizons will reach 50 astronomical units (AU) from the sun, a distance achieved by just four other operational probes in the history of spaceflight. (One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.)"

If folks use Starry Night Pro Plus 8, New Horizons is plotted on the sky charts for view when selected. It is indeed 50 au from the Sun today and in Sagittarius, setting near 1136 EDT for my location. So if you have a great telescope, with New Horizons position tracked and plotted, perhaps you can get a great view of the space probe too However, the apparent magnitude shown is 43.48