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A Complete Guide to the Solar System and the Night Sky
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public Observing fromLocation: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt
SunriseRise: 6:04  
clear_day Transit: 12:06  
SunsetSet: 18:09
sleep NighttimeWhat's Visible Now?
Space Probes » 

New Horizons

Altitude: 2.2°   Azimuth: 127.0°   Direction: South-East

New Horizons is a NASA space probe launched in January 2006 with the mission to explore the dwarf planet Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the outermost region of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. The spacecraft completed its flyby of Pluto in July 2015, providing detailed images and data of the dwarf planet's surface, atmosphere, and moons. It then continued its journey into the Kuiper Belt, where it conducted a flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, nicknamed "Ultima Thule," in January 2019, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a KBO. The New Horizons mission has provided valuable insights into the formation and evolution of the outer Solar System and expanded our knowledge of the icy bodies that reside there.

New Horizons is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, at a distance of 8,793,642,675 kilometers from Earth.

Finder chart of New Horizons in Sagittarius on March,19 2024
Map showing New Horizons in Sagittarius on March, 19 2024. Field of view: 50x30 degrees
View interactive star map
The current Right Ascension of New Horizons is 19h 20m 31s and the Declination is -20° 09’ 17” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt).

19h 20m 31s
-20° 09’ 17”
Sagittarius

Today's rise, transit and set times of New Horizons from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 110.2°
Max altitude: 18.4°
Azimuth: 249.8°
  • New Horizons is above the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt.
  • Right now it is placed in the South-East direction at an altitude of 2° above the horizon.
  • Go to interactive sky chart

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Additional Resources

New Horizons Position and Finder Charts

Finder chart of New Horizons
Map showing New Horizons in Sagittarius on March, 19 2024
Field of view: 10x6 degrees
View fullscreen

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where New Horizons is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

New Horizons
RA: 19h 20m 31s
Dec: -20° 09’ 17”
Deep sky finder chart for New Horizons
Field of view: 60x40 arcmins
View fullscreen

Also check out Where is New Horizons?, a page that provides all the information needed to find New Horizons in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

New Horizons Distance from Earth

The distance of New Horizons from Earth is currently 8,793,642,675 kilometers, equivalent to 58.781871 Astronomical Units. Light takes 8 hours, 8 minutes and 52.4346 seconds to travel from New Horizons and arrive to us.

8,793,642,675
58.781871
8 hours, 8 minutes and 52.4346 seconds

The following chart shows the distance of New Horizons from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of New Horizons from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of New Horizons from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest Approach of New Horizons to Earth

Between 20 January 2006 and 31 December 2025, the closest approach of New Horizons to Earth happens on Fri Jan 20 2006 at a distance of 0.001369 Astronomical Units, or 204,840 kilometers:

Fri Jan 20 2006
204,840
0.001369

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Visualization of New Horizons Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of New Horizons with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets. The position of New Horizons and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback!

Orbit Diagram of New Horizons

New Horizons 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of New Horizons computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate New Horizons in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Constellation
2024 Mar 12 19h 20m 17s -20° 09’ 57” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 13 19h 20m 20s -20° 09’ 51” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 14 19h 20m 21s -20° 09’ 46” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 15 19h 20m 23s -20° 09’ 39” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 16 19h 20m 26s -20° 09’ 33” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 17 19h 20m 27s -20° 09’ 29” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 18 19h 20m 30s -20° 09’ 23” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 19 19h 20m 30s -20° 09’ 18” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 20 19h 20m 33s -20° 09’ 12” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 21 19h 20m 34s -20° 09’ 07” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 22 19h 20m 35s -20° 09’ 02” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 23 19h 20m 36s -20° 08’ 57” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 24 19h 20m 39s -20° 08’ 53” N.A. Sagittarius
2024 Mar 25 19h 20m 39s -20° 08’ 48” N.A. Sagittarius