New Horizons is about to Knock at the door of Jupiter

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, the fastest ever built by human, is rapidly zooming towards a close encounter with Jupiter, the largest planet of the solar system, to study its tempestuous atmosphere, ring system and four of its moons before moving swiftly to see distant Pluto in 2015, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Friday.

The spacecraft, which will make its closest pass to Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007, will study and swing past Jupiter, increasing speed on its voyage towards Pluto, the Kuiper Belt and beyond, the US space agency said.

The spacecraft which is already the fastest ever launched will get some extra boost while passing the gas-giant Jupiter, fifth from the sun. Jupiter's gravity will accelerate New Horizons away from the sun by an additional 14,500 km per hour (9,000 miles per hour), pushing it past 84,000 km per hour (52,000 miles per hour) and hurling it toward a pass through the Pluto system in July 2015.

The increase in the speed of the spacecraft will shorten its journey time to Pluto by four years.

Launched on January 19, 2006, NASA's compact, 1,050-pound spacecraft worth $700m, is due to reach Jupiter after a 13-month journey from Earth, flying within 1.4 million miles.

On the probe, launched to gather information on Pluto and its four largest moons- Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern says, "Our highest priority is to get the spacecraft safely through the gravity assist and on its way to Pluto." Stern from the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado further says, "We also have an incredible opportunity to conduct a real-world encounter stress test to wring out our procedures and techniques, and to collect some valuable science data."

Before this, seven spacecraft including Voyager 1, Galileo and Cassini from Earth had visited Jupiter,but none had such sophisticated equipment the New Horizons bears. The spacecraft is equipped with state-of-the-art seven science instruments, and has taken more than 20 images of Jupiter, so far. The NASA scientists hope to obtain more than 700 observations by the end of a late February flyby.

The probe, which has already begun and will continue through to June, includes scans of Jupiter's turbulent, stormy atmosphere, a detailed survey of its ring system, and a detailed study of Jupiter's moons.

Besides taking the first-ever trip down the long "tail" of Jupiter's magnetosphere, a wide stream of charged particles that extends tens of millions of kilometers beyond the planet, the spacecraft will also explore closely the "Little Red Spot," a nascent storm south of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot.

Once the New Horizons arrives on Pluto in July 2015, it will spend five months probing Pluto and its three moons. And, if all goes well, it could study one or more smaller worlds in the Kuiper Belt, the region at the far reaches of the solar system of ancient, rocky and icy bodies.