A Demonstration of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons

Abstract As NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft exits the solar system bound for interstellar space, it has traveled so far that the nearest stars have shifted markedly from their positions seen from Earth. We demonstrated this by imaging the Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 fields from Earth and New Horizons on 2020 April 23, when the spacecraft was 47.1 au distant. The observed parallaxes for Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 are <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>32</mml:mn> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>″</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>15</mml:mn> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> <mml:mi>″</mml:mi> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:math> , respectively. These measurements are not of research grade, but directly seeing large stellar parallaxes between two widely separated simultaneous observers is vividly educational. Using the New Horizons positions of the two stars alone, referenced to the three-dimensional model (3D) of the solar neighborhood constructed from Gaia DR3 astrometry, further provides the spacecraft spatial position relative to nearby stars with 0.44 au accuracy. The range to New Horizons from the solar system barycenter is recovered to 0.27 au accuracy, and its angular direction to <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>°</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:math> accuracy, when compared to the precise values from NASA Deep Space Network tracking. This is the first time optical stellar astrometry has been used to determine the 3D location of a spacecraft with respect to nearby stars and the first time any method of interstellar navigation has been demonstrated for a spacecraft on an interstellar trajectory. We conclude that the best astrometric approach to navigating spacecraft on their departures to interstellar space is to use a single pair of the closest stars as references, rather than a large sample of more distant stars.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
The Astronomical Journal
Published
2025-06-30
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/addabe
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.15
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

A Demonstration of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons

Federico González, Daniel Martínez, E. Guzmán, Eliot Halley Vrijmoet et al.
1 citations
The Astronomical Journal
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
1.15
article

A Demonstration of Interstellar Navigation Using New Horizons

Federico González, Daniel Martínez, E. Guzmán, Eliot Halley Vrijmoet, D. Terrell, Andrés Yagüe López, H. A. Weaver, W. Hanna, Simon B. Porter, Todd J. Henry, César Fornari, Giorgio Di Scala, Natalia Arias, Ted von Hippel, V. A. Buso, P. C. Brandt, Marc A. Murison, Benjamin L. Gerard, G. S. Hennessy, Pedro Acosta, A. Verbiscer, J. W. Parker, S. A. Stern, Aldo Kleiman, B. May, Tod R. Lauer, M. W. Buie, D. H. Munro, Jossiel Fraire, J. R. Spencer, Steven J. Conard, Mariano Ribas, A. Valenzuela, William C. Keel, Claudio Martínez, John F. Kielkopf, Wen-Ping Chen, R. Melia, K. N. Singer, G. H. Kaplan, Edward Gomez, Pedro Valentí, Sergio Babino, Gustavo Enrique Ballan, Daniel Das Airas, Gerardo Goytea, Jorge Gerardo Machuca, Leonardo Málaga, Marcelo Monópoli, Leandro Emiliano Fernandez Pohle, Sergio Scauso, Thomas Traub, Dennis Zambelis, Jennifer Hincapié Sánchez
article en
1 citations

Abstract

Abstract As NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft exits the solar system bound for interstellar space, it has traveled so far that the nearest stars have shifted markedly from their positions seen from Earth. We demonstrated this by imaging the Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 fields from Earth and New Horizons on 2020 April 23, when the spacecraft was 47.1 au distant. The observed parallaxes for Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359 are <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>32</mml:mn> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>″</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>15</mml:mn> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> <mml:mi>″</mml:mi> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>7</mml:mn> </mml:math> , respectively. These measurements are not of research grade, but directly seeing large stellar parallaxes between two widely separated simultaneous observers is vividly educational. Using the New Horizons positions of the two stars alone, referenced to the three-dimensional model (3D) of the solar neighborhood constructed from Gaia DR3 astrometry, further provides the spacecraft spatial position relative to nearby stars with 0.44 au accuracy. The range to New Horizons from the solar system barycenter is recovered to 0.27 au accuracy, and its angular direction to <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>.</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>°</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> </mml:math> accuracy, when compared to the precise values from NASA Deep Space Network tracking. This is the first time optical stellar astrometry has been used to determine the 3D location of a spacecraft with respect to nearby stars and the first time any method of interstellar navigation has been demonstrated for a spacecraft on an interstellar trajectory. We conclude that the best astrometric approach to navigating spacecraft on their departures to interstellar space is to use a single pair of the closest stars as references, rather than a large sample of more distant stars.

The Astronomical JournalVol. 170(1)
Openalex Percentile: Top 18%
Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
1.15
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.