A NASA spacecraft will wake up from its final nap today (Dec. 6) to begin preparations for an epic encounter with Pluto and its moons in 2015 that will cap a nine-year trek to the edge of the solar system.

The New Horizons spacecraft left Earth in January 2006 and has traveled about 2.9 billion miles (4.6 billion kilometers) on its way to study Pluto and its largest moon Charon, a few smaller moons and more objects in the Kuiper Belt. The mission has already captured images of Pluto and Charon, but nothing like what it will see on its closest approach in July 2015.

New Horizons has spent about two-thirds of its journey in hibernation mode, during which time most of its computer systems and instruments were shut down to reduce wear and tear, and lower operations costs. The probe sends a weekly signal back to Earth, and is woken up every six to 10 months to assure that it is still operational.

NASA’s New Horizons snapped the big dwarf planet and its nearby moon for 5 days (July 19th-24th, 2014). Charon is 750 - 753 miles diameter, the largest known compared to the size of its host planet. Some consider Pluto-Charon a binary planet.

http://www.space.com/26786-pluto-and...obe-video.html