Artist's view of the New Horizons probe and a Kuiper object - The New Horizons...

Artist's view of the New Horizons probe and a Kuiper object - The New Horizons spacecraft near Kuiper Belt Object - Artist's view of the New Horizons probe approaching a Kuiper object. The Sun shines more than 6 billion km surrounded by a disc of dust. Jupiter and Neptune appear as two stars to the right of the Sun. The New Horizons probe was launched on 19 January 2006 to Jupiter, then Pluto and Charon, which it will reach in 2015 and Kuiper's objects in 2020. Artist's impression of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering a Kuiper Belt object. The Sun, more than 4.1 billion miles (6.7 billion kilometers) away, shines as a bright star embedded in the glow of the zodiacal dust cloud. Jupiter and Neptune are visible as orange and blue “” stars””” to the right of the Sun. Although you would not actually see the myriad other objects that make up the Kuiper Belt because they are so far apart, they are shown here to give the impression of an extensive disk of icy worlds beyond Neptune