Mission to Pluto

Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system, and right now it's about three billion miles from the Sun. Its great distance from the Sun makes Pluto extremely cold. In fact, its surface temperature hovers near 400 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Pluto got its name because, in Greek mythology, Pluto was god of the underworld -- someone who, like the planet itself, was locked in perpetual darkness.

In 1978 -- 48 years after Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto -- another astronomer, James Christy, found a moon in orbit around the small planet. The moon is named Charon, for the ferryman who carried souls into Pluto's underworld.

Because Pluto and Charon lie at the edge of the solar system, a voyage to these worlds will take many years. To reach them, in fact, a spacecraft must first swing by giant Jupiter, where it would get an extra "kick" from that planet's gravity.

But we can launch a mission to Pluto only when Jupiter is in the right place. The next opportunity occurs in the year 2001. A Pluto-bound spacecraft launched then would pass Jupiter in 2006 and arrive at Pluto in 2015.

Though the trip would be long, it also would be rewarding. It would show us for the first time what Pluto and Charon are like, and complete our picture of our own solar system.