A small spacecraft en route to Pluto flew past Jupiter early on Wednesday, picking up enough speed from the giant planet’s gravity field to shave three years off what would have been a 12-year voyage. New Horizons‘ closest approach to Jupiter occurred at 12:43 a.m. ET, when it passed 1.4 million miles from the planet. The studies of Jupiter and its four largest moons began several weeks ago and are scheduled to continue through June.
Pluto-Bound New Horizons Spacecraft Gets a Boost from Jupiter