NASA's New Horizons probe awakens on approach to Pluto

NASA's New Horizons probe flickered to life on Saturday in preparation for a highly-anticipated study of Pluto and its surrounding celestial neighbors.

Launched in January 2006, the probe hibernated, in more than a dozen stints, for a total of 1,873 days during its nine-year, 3-billion-mile journey. New Horizons will begin observing Pluto in January and fly within 7,700 miles of its surface to finally give researchers high-resolution images of the ex-planet.

"We are so very looking forward to turning this very fuzzy little image of a distant planet into something real," Alan Stern, one of the lead researchers on the mission, told the Los Angeles Times.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up