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minuscule world.

The New Horizons spacecraft is the size of a baby grand piano with a salad bowl – the dish antenna – on top. It was expected to come closest to Pluto at 11.49 GMT (1.49am SA time today) yesterday. Thirteen hours later, flight controllers would learn if everything went well. The spacecraft will have sent the confirmation signal four-and-a-half hours earlier; that’s the one-way, speed-oflight, data-transit time between New Horizons and Earth.

Stern expects “a little bit of drama” during closest approach, when the spacecraft is out of touch with ground controllers. New Horizons cannot make observations and