Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is about to welcome a robotic visitor. NASA’s New Horizons probe will make its closest pass by the gas giant at about 12:45 a.m. EST Wednesday in a sort of cosmic stopover on its long trek to distant Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The planetary flyby comes just 13 months after New Horizons‘ launch, with the probe hurtling through space at about 75.640 kilometers per hour. At its closest approach, New Horizons is expected to fly within 2.3 million kilometres of Jupiter.
New Horizons is the first probe to visit Jupiter since NASA’s Galileo orbiter plunged into the gas giant’s atmosphere to end its 14-year mission in 2003. The Cassini orbiter, currently circling the planet Saturn, swung past Jupiter in December 2000.
New Horizons Web Site