New Horizons mission to Pluto Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex – making space history CSIRO ASTRONOMY AND SPACE SCIENCE 13 July 2015

What is the New Horizons mission? Glen Nagle Outreach and Administration Lead, Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, CSIRO

What is the New Horizons mission? 3 | New Horizons is NASA’s first mission to reach and explore the distant world of Pluto and its family of five moons. Video: New Horizons Will Shed More Light on Pluto Than Ever Before (2:40)

New Horizons NASA and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 9 ½ years and 5.3 billion km First mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Fastest spacecraft ever launched from Earth Farthest distance a spacecraft has travelled to begin its primary science mission Closest approach during flyby is 12, 500km from Pluto’s surface Less than 24 hours in the Pluto system 4 |

What is Australia’s role? Dr Ed Kruzins Director, Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, CSIRO

Australia’s role 50 year relationship with NASA Part of NASA-JPL’s Deep Space Network (DSN) Prime tracking station Closest encounter occurs 14 July (tomorrow night) CDSCC as part of the DSN is a vital communication link Our highly skilled people are critical to success NH operating for another decade 6 |

7 |

8 | CDSCC is part of the DSN network of antennas that will participate in this historic NH event. We will be the prime encounter site, but will hand over to our sister DSN sites as the Earth orientation changes.

Why is this discovery important? Lewis Ball Director, Astronomy and Space Science, CSIRO

Importance of New Horizons mission Historic exploration Understand worlds at the edge of our solar system Pluto holds important clues Pluto’s atmosphere is escaping Enable us to fill in knowledge gaps 10 |

Discoveries so far… 11 | Observations and data returned from New Horizons, has already: Greatly improved our knowledge Pluto’s precise location Refined knowledge about the size and position of the 4 orbiting moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos) New Horizons’ data has revealed the existence of methane ice on Pluto (methane is an organic molecule) New Horizons’ images have started to uncover intriguing details of the surfaces of Pluto and Charon. New Horizons’ images have shown Pluto has a reddish appearance in areas and large mysterious dark spots up to 500kms across Pluto’s largest moon Charon is greyish in colour, which is a surprise to the science team. It means that it is very different from Pluto’s composition. New and latest info on mission website

Thank you Q&A’s Glen Nagle Outreach and Administration Lead, Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, CSIRO t Ed Kruzins Director, Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, CSIRO t Lewis Ball Director, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science t MEDIA CONTACT: Indra Tomic - Communication Manager, National Facilities & Collections / /