New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA space probe launched in January 2006 with the mission to explore the dwarf planet Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the outermost region of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. The spacecraft completed its flyby of Pluto in July 2015, providing detailed images and data of the dwarf planet's surface, atmosphere, and moons. It then continued its journey into the Kuiper Belt, where it conducted a flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, nicknamed "Ultima Thule," in January 2019, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a KBO. The New Horizons mission has provided valuable insights into the formation and evolution of the outer Solar System and expanded our knowledge of the icy bodies that reside there.
New Horizons is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, at a distance of 8,728,394,184 kilometers from Earth.
View interactive star map
Today's rise, transit and set times of New Horizons from Greenwich, United Kingdom (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):
- New Horizons is above the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom.
- Right now it is placed in the South-South-West direction at an altitude of 17° above the horizon.
- Go to interactive sky chart
If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.
Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where New Horizons is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.
Also check out Where is New Horizons?, a page that provides all the information needed to find New Horizons in the sky and additional links to sky charts.
New Horizons Distance from Earth
The distance of New Horizons from Earth is currently 8,728,394,184 kilometers, equivalent to 58.345711 Astronomical Units. Light takes 8 hours, 5 minutes and 14.7891 seconds to travel from New Horizons and arrive to us.
The following chart shows the distance of New Horizons from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.
The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of New Horizons from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.
Closest Approach of New Horizons to Earth
Between 20 January 2006 and 31 December 2029, the closest approach of New Horizons to Earth happens on Fri Jan 20 2006 at a distance of 0.001369 Astronomical Units, or 204,840 kilometers:
NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.
Visualization of New Horizons Orbit
This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of New Horizons with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of New Horizons and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback!
New Horizons 15 Days Ephemeris
The following table lists the ephemerides of New Horizons computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate New Horizons in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.
Date | Right AscensionR.A. | DeclinationDec. | MagnitudeMag | Constellation |
---|---|---|---|---|
2024 May 01 | 19h 20m 36s | -20° 07’ 36” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 02 | 19h 20m 35s | -20° 07’ 36” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 03 | 19h 20m 34s | -20° 07’ 37” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 04 | 19h 20m 31s | -20° 07’ 39” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 05 | 19h 20m 30s | -20° 07’ 40” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 06 | 19h 20m 29s | -20° 07’ 41” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 07 | 19h 20m 26s | -20° 07’ 42” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 08 | 19h 20m 25s | -20° 07’ 45” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 09 | 19h 20m 22s | -20° 07’ 46” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 10 | 19h 20m 21s | -20° 07’ 47” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 11 | 19h 20m 18s | -20° 07’ 50” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 12 | 19h 20m 17s | -20° 07’ 53” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 13 | 19h 20m 14s | -20° 07’ 54” | N.A. | Sagittarius |
2024 May 14 | 19h 20m 12s | -20° 07’ 57” | N.A. | Sagittarius |