Artwork depicting the New Horizons spacecraft, which launched from Earth on 19 January 2006 and will reach Pluto in 2015. It will spend 15 months studying Pluto, the largest Kuiper Belt object, previously known as the solar system's most distant planet. Pluto (lower right), some 6 billion kilometers from the Sun (upper right), has never before been visited by a spacecraft from Earth. It is a small rocky, icy world with a thin atmosphere and a moon, Charon (upper right). The spacecraft will use cameras and scientific equipment to gather data, sending it back to Earth with the large (2.1-meter) dish antenna (yellow). New Horizons will also travel beyond Pluto to study other objects in the Kuiper Belt.