New Horizons

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/new-horizons

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How high is New Horizons?July 14, 2015, 12,500 km above surface
2. What is the spacecraft mission type?NASA New Frontiers program interplanetary probe
3. What is the lead institutions?Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
4. How fast did New Horizons go when it left Earth?When it left Earth, New Horizons was moving about 16.26 km/s (58,500 km/h), the fastest object ever launched from Earth at that time.
5. Why did New Horizons fly by Jupiter?New Horizons flew past Jupiter to use the planet's gravity like a slingshot, which gave it extra speed and helped test its instruments before heading to Pluto.

Heliosphere: The vast bubble of charged particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun that extends far beyond the planets.
Kuiper Belt Object (KBO): Any of the numerous small, icy bodies orbiting the Sun in a region beyond Neptune.
Contact Binary: Two celestial bodies that are touching and appear to be a single object.
Cryovolcanism: Volcanic activity on icy celestial bodies where the erupted material is a slurry of water, ammonia, or methane.