Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The flyby in July 2015 was the first close look at the dwarf planet. The figure is taken from NASA New Horizons, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a space fact?

Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

New Horizons reached Pluto after nine and a half years

The flyby in July 2015 was the first close look at the dwarf planet The probe left Earth at the fastest launch speed of any spacecraft, about 16 kilometres a second. It passed Pluto at roughly 14 kilometres a second, giving one chance at the encounter. Data took 16 months to trickle home over a slow radio link. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

NASA New Horizons

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Space & Astronomy trivia

More facts like this

New Horizons performed the first close-up flyby of Pluto in 2015High-resolution photos revealed ice mountains and nitrogen glaciers Mariner 4 sent the first close-up pictures of MarsIts 1965 flyby showed a cratered surface and a thin atmosphere Voyager 1 is the furthest human made objectIt is beyond 160 times the Earth-Sun distance and still transmitting Cassini released a probe that landed on TitanHuygens touched down in January 2005 and sent data for over an hour Pluto features a giant heart-shaped nitrogen glacierSputnik Planitia is a vast plain of frozen nitrogen ice on the dwarf planet Eris discovery prompted the reclassification of PlutoThe distant Kuiper Belt dwarf planet is more massive than Pluto

Tags: pluto, probes, flyby

New Horizons reached Pluto after nine and a half years: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The flyby in July 2015 was the first close look at the dwarf planet. The figure is taken from NASA New Horizons, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a space fact?: Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.