New Horizons will be the fifth spacecraft in history to leave the solar system - the probe will study the darkness of the universe

New Horizons is about to leave the solar system. Only four spacecraft have ever done that before.

Here's What We Know

Outside our star system, the space probe will be able to take pictures of the universe without light. New Horizons has reached the edge of the solar system and has already transmitted several photos to scientists.

Thanks to the spacecraft, researchers have learnt that the sky at the edge of the system is not as dark as previously thought. The light turned out to be twice as intense as scientists had calculated by analysing the light of galaxies that are located in the direction of the survey. Moreover, New Horizons took the photo in the darkest side of the Milky Way to minimise the background glow.

As we wrote above, only four spacecraft were able to leave the solar system. Previously, this was done by Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 and Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. By the way, recently scientists lost and then successfully re-established contact with Voyager 2, which has removed about 20 billion kilometres from our planet.

Source: Science Alert