NASA's New Horizons probe awakens after long hibernation near Pluto
· UPIJuly 8 (UPI) -- NASA's New Horizons probe has awakened after hibernating for nearly a year billions of miles into deep space.
New Horizons is often placed into a resource-saving mode while cruising long distances, and had been in hibernation just beyond the dwarf planet Pluto since August 7.
NASA said on Tuesday the spacecraft is some 5.9 billion miles away from Earth -- a distance so vast, it took nearly 9 hours for its radio signals to reach back to mission control.
While operators don't communicate with New Horizons during hibernation, the probe continues to collect data and sends back a weekly status beacon.
"Every status report through this hibernation period was 'green,' meaning all was well aboard New Horizons each and every week," said New Horizons mission operations manager Alice Bowman, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement.
New Horizons took more than nine years to reach Pluto since its launch on Jan. 19, 2006.
About a year later, in February 2007, the spacecraft passed by Jupiter and captured breathtaking views of the gas giant and its moons.
By July 2015, New Horizons conducted NASA's first exploration through the Kuiper Belt, sending back stunning images of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons.
The probe has also performed studies of the Sun's outer heliosphere and other objects in the Kuiper Belt.
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News anchors are seen outside the Supreme Court of the United States as the court releases their final opinions before summer recess on Tuesday. The court upheld birthright citizenship and also state laws banning transgender women and girls from playing on school athletic teams. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo