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Pluto has a moderately eccentric and inclined orbit, ranging from 30 to 49 astronomical units (4.5 to 7.3 billion kilometres; 2.8 to 4.6 billion miles) from the Sun. Light from the Sun takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its orbital distance of 39.5 AU (5.91 billion km; 3.67 billion mi).
This is a list of space probes that have left Earth orbit (or were launched with that intention but failed), organized by their planned destination. It includes planetary probes, solar probes, and probes to asteroids and comets, but excludes lunar missions, which are listed separately at List of lunar probes and List of Apollo missions.
Euler diagram showing the types of bodies orbiting the Sun. The following is a list of Solar System objects by orbit, ordered by increasing distance from the Sun. Most named objects in this list have a diameter of 500 km or more. The Sun, a spectral class G2V main-sequence star; The inner Solar System and the terrestrial planets. 2021 PH27; Mercury
A Pluto orbiter/lander/sample return mission was proposed in 2003. The plan included a twelve-year trip from Earth to Pluto, mapping from orbit, multiple landings, a warm water probe, and possible in situ propellant production for another twelve-year trip back to Earth with samples. Power and propulsion would come from the bimodal MITEE nuclear ...
It does not include: Centuries of terrestrial telescopic observation. The great majority of Earth-orbiting satellites. Space probes leaving Earth orbit that are not concerned with Solar System exploration (such as space telescopes targeted at distant galaxies, cosmic background radiation observatories, and so on). Probes that failed at launch.
The nine missions include two, Ulysses and New Horizons, whose primary objectives were not outer planets, but which flew past Jupiter to gain gravity assists en route to a polar orbit around the Sun (Ulysses), and to Pluto (New Horizons). Pluto was considered a planet at the time that New Horizons launched, but was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
Sun–Earth L 1: NASA: Planned for launch in early 2025. Space Weather Follow On - Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) Sun–Earth L 1: NOAA: Planned for launch in early 2025 as a rideshare to IMAP. Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) Sun–Earth L 2: ESA: Planned for launch in 2026 for an initial six-year mission. [55] Space Infrared ...
This orbit was used on the Spitzer Space Telescope in order to drastically reduce the heat load from the warm Earth from a more typical geocentric orbit used for space telescopes. [25] Graveyard orbit (or disposal, junk orbit) : An orbit that satellites are moved into at the end of their operation.