The probe approaches a rock within a historic mission

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A US space probe, launched by the US space agency NASA, arrived Tuesday at the end of the solar system and was flying near a space rock 20 miles long, to billions kilometers of Earth, the origin of the solar system.

The New Horizons probe is expected to reach the third zone in the depths of the Kuiper Belt at 12:33 pm EST. Scientists will only get confirmation of his successful arrival when the spacecraft sent data to its location via NASA's deep space network at 10:28 am EST, about 10 hours later.

Once the probe enters the outer layer of the belt containing frozen objects and debris to form the solar system, it will for the first time examine the Altima Thuli, a large block in the form of a peanut bean.

NASA said the scientists had not discovered Altima Thuli during the launch of the probe, which made her mission unique. In 2014, astronomers monitored Altima Thule with the help of Hubble Space Telescope and chose to be part of the New Horizons mission started in 2015.

"Everything is possible in this very unknown region," John Spencer, a New Horizons scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, told reporters.

The New Horizons were launched in January 2006 to reduce the icy limbs of the solar system by four billion kilometers to study Pluto and its five moons.

Approaching Pluto in 2015, the probe discovered that Pluto was slightly larger than expected. In March, he discovered methane-rich dunes on the surface of Pluto. The probe has been cut one billion kilometers behind Pluto towards the Kuiper belt and is now seeking information on the origin of the solar system and its planets.