On July 6th， as reported by Kuaitech， scientists at NASA have successfully conducted humanity’s first deep-space stellar navigation test using the New Horizons probe， which is currently traversing the Kuiper Belt.
The New Horizons probe， launched in 2006， holds the record for the fastest initial launch velocity of any spacecraft ever sent by humans. It achieved its first close flyby and observation of Pluto on July 14， 2015， and is the fifth probe to have left the solar system. It continues to move away from the Sun at a speed of 14 kilometers per second.
Although New Horizons was largely sidelined in NASA’s most recent budget allocations， it has nevertheless played a crucial role in achieving this remarkable feat.
This stellar distance measurement test operates on the principle of “stellar parallax” to determine the probe’s position.
Stellar parallax is the apparent shift in the position of a star when observed from different vantage points. Given that New Horizons is now over 700 million kilometers from Earth， it is ideally situated for observing stellar parallax.
The scientists utilized two of the closest stars to Earth: Proxima Centauri， located 4.2 light-years away， and Wolf 359， situated 7.86 light-years away.
The process involved New Horizons capturing images of these two stars. These images were then compared with simultaneous observational data gathered from Earth to precisely calculate the probe’s location， with an error margin of less than 6.6 million kilometers. This precision is equivalent to measuring the distance between New York on the U.S. East Coast and Los Angeles on the West Coast with an error of only 66 centimeters.
This experiment unequivocally demonstrates that future deep-space spacecraft will have the capability to navigate and determine their positions independently of Earth， relying solely on the celestial backdrop.
