The New Horizons spacecraft will make its first encounter with three new Kuiper Belt objects as it journeys towards the ninth planet in the solar system, Pluto.

New Horizons was launched in January 19, 2006 with the primary mission of reaching the farthest planet in the system and further studying and observng the former exoplanet.

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In February 2007, the spacecraft passed by Jupiter where it used Jupiter's gravitational forces as a slingshot to further propel New Horizons into deep space, making the voyage shorter by three years.

New Horizons is estimated to arrive near the distant planet's orbit by July 14, 2015 at 7:50 a.m. EDT as it is travelling at speeds of 33,000 miles per hour. 

Pluto was declassified as part of the solar system by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006, although it was met with great criticism from the public. Last month, Owen Gingerich, chairman of the IAU planet definition committee, declared that Pluto is indeed a planet. However, there is no official statement reclassifying the planet.

As New Horizons rendezvous with Pluto, it will also encounter the Kuiper Belt which is located approximately 50 astronomical units from the sun and extends its orbit within Neptune and beyond.

Considered similar to an asteroid belt, it is a collection of frozen objects that are believed to be relics from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.

This is the first for humankind as no other spacecraft has visited this region in the outskirts of the solar system. The Kuiper Belt extends from 6.25 miles in diameter where objects could number as many as one million.

The Hubble Space Telescope was the first to detect these icy objects amassed in the Kuiper Belt's abyss. They will provide the opportunity for New Horizons to observe the region as it journeys towards Pluto.

At first, ground based telescopes have detected seven Kuiper Belt object but spacecrafts could not reach the belt because of its sheer distance.

According to John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute, also part of the New Horizons team, it was worrying at first that the Hubble could not find any potential Kuiper Belt object for New Horizons to study closer but in the end, the telescope found some. 

New Horizons will be able to further observe three objects where one can be reached by the spacecraft where the other two will still need further analysis. These objects ranges from 15 to 34 miles in diameter, rather tiny in size.

New Horizons will arrive at the belt, some one billion miles from Pluto's orbit, in 2018 or 2019.

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