The New Horizons probe passed its closest point to Jupiter this morning at 12:45 EST. The close pass to Jupiter will allow the probe to pick up speed for the remainder of the trip to Pluto and beyond.

• New Horizons was launched 13 months ago.
• It is currently traveling about 47,000 miles per hour (75,639 kph)
• The closest New Horizons will be to Jupiter is 1.7 million miles (2.3 million kilometers)
• In order to get the gravitational push from Jupiter, NASA had to hit a 'window' about 500 miles wide, from 500 million miles away. Alan Stern made the comparison that it’s the equivalent of shooting a skeet target in Baltimore, Md., from a firing range in Washington. I suppose he means Washington State?

MSNBC article
Boing Boing has some info about a time capsule that is supposed to be opened when the probe reaches Jupiter in 2015.

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