Pluto's Horizon

In March 1930 the Lowell Observatory in Arizona announced the discovery of a small, odd world, roaming beyond the known planets in a region barely visible through the most powerful telescopes.
Seventy-five years later that historic find -- Pluto -- remains almost as much of a mystery as it was then. No spacecraft has ever visited it, and not even the Hubble Space Telescope can spot details on its rocky, icy surface. Yet with the New Horizons mission, now in development and planning for liftoff January 2006 from Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA looks to unlock one of the solar system's last, great planetary secrets.

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All News summaries for March 10, 2005