(L-R) New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), project manager Helene Winters of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Fred Pelletier, lead of the project navigation team at KinetX Inc. in Simi Valley, California, and New Horizons co-investigator John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, on Dec. 31, 2018. NASA/Joel Kowsky/Handout via Reuters
ORLANDO, Fla.—A NASA explorer is believed to have reached the solar system’s outermost region, flying close to a space rock 20 miles long and billions of miles from Earth on a mission to gather clues about the creation of the solar system.
The body is farther from Earth than any other that has had such a close encounter with a NASA probe, scientists believe.
