DENVER — Colorado is playing a key role in deep space discovery. Within a few days, the New Horizons spacecraft will reach its closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto. It’s a mission that will rewrite text books.

Colorado’s Ball Aerospace and the Southwest Research Institute (which has offices in Boulder) helped develop the instruments for New Horizons.

Come Tuesday, the cameras on the craft will start snapping as many images of the dwarf planet as possible.

New Horizons left earth in 2006. It’s traveling more than 30,000 miles an hour. For the last 9.5 years it’s been traveling three billion miles toward Pluto. Pluto is roughly two times the size of Texas.

“Usually when we launch a space craft to Mars (say) it takes two or three days to pass the orbit of the moon. New Horizons did that in 9 hours,” said Dr. Steve Lee, Curator of Planetary Science at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Pluto is on the outskirts of our solar system and no telescope or satellite has ever captured clear images of it.

Next week, New Horizons will be within 6,000 miles of Pluto and it’s expected to capture stellar images of it.

It’s unclear what New Horizons will be able to see. Over the decades, scientists have shared their best theories about the planet’s makeup.

“There’s rock mixed in with ice. They’re very, very cold. Almost 400 degrees below zero farenheit,” Lee said.

Pluto is believed to have more contrast (from bright to dark) than any other object in our solar system. New Horizons should shed some light on everything we’ve ever wondered about the dwarf planet.

Once it reaches 6,000 miles from Pluto, New Horizons will spend a few days snapping pics as it passes by. The first high resolution images we’ll see will likely come Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
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