New Horizons

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.

The current Right Ascension of New Horizons is 19h 13m 36s and the Declination is -20° 23’ 04” (topocentric coordinates computed for the selected location: Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt).

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):

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.

Available Resources

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is New Horizons?)
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is New Horizons from Earth?)
• When does New Horizons rise and set?
• Interactive orbit visualization. 3d visualization showing the orbit of New Horizons with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides. Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of New Horizons for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart. An online planetarium application that shows where to locate New Horizons in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker. A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate New Horizons with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

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.

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 8,723,745,321 kilometers, equivalent to 58.314636 Astronomical Units. Light takes 8 hours, 4 minutes and 59.2821 seconds to travel from New Horizons and arrive to us.

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.

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:

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!

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
2023 Nov 22	19h 13m 13s	-20° 23’ 38”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 23	19h 13m 15s	-20° 23’ 34”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 24	19h 13m 18s	-20° 23’ 30”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 25	19h 13m 23s	-20° 23’ 25”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 26	19h 13m 26s	-20° 23’ 21”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 27	19h 13m 30s	-20° 23’ 16”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 28	19h 13m 32s	-20° 23’ 11”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 29	19h 13m 36s	-20° 23’ 06”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Nov 30	19h 13m 40s	-20° 23’ 00”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Dec 01	19h 13m 44s	-20° 22’ 55”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Dec 02	19h 13m 46s	-20° 22’ 50”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Dec 03	19h 13m 50s	-20° 22’ 45”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Dec 04	19h 13m 54s	-20° 22’ 40”	N.A.	Sagittarius
2023 Dec 05	19h 13m 58s	-20° 22’ 35”	N.A.	Sagittarius