Pluto is Stranger Than We Ever Imagined | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS

Watch as the New Horizons spacecraft captures our first clear view of Pluto’s icy surface. (Aired July 15, 2015)

(Originally titled "Chasing Pluto" on PBS)

Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3Uju9za | #novapbs

https://to.pbs.org/3Uju9za

On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft, one of the most advanced ever built, is scheduled to fly by Pluto to take the very first detailed images of the dwarf planet. After nine years and 3 billion miles, we will finally get a close look at this strange, icy world, but only if the craft can survive the final, treacherous leg of its journey, which could take it through a dangerous field of debris. If it does, New Horizons is poised to make dramatic new discoveries, not just about Pluto, but about the vast realm of icy bodies lurking beyond Neptune, relics of the earliest days of the solar system’s formation. Back on Earth, the planetary scientists who have spent decades working on this mission anxiously await a signal from their spacecraft. Our cameras will be there to witness the moment. If all goes well, we’ll see Pluto’s mysterious surface in unprecedented detail and learn new secrets about other alien worlds at the far limits of our solar system.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:10 The First Mission to Pluto
09:55 Exploring the Kuiper Belt & Pluto
18:40 New Horizons Passes Jupiter
22:38 The Demotion of Pluto as a Planet
33:20 Dwarf Planets and the Existence of Life
37:22 The Moons of Pluto
42:43 The Final Leg of New Horizons
51:40 Conclusion

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