Another first has been achieved when Horizon I, which left Kerbin fifty-three days ago, swung past Eve. It was the first probe to encounter another planetary body. Staff at Mission Control cheered as the probe sent back close-up images of our closest planetary neighbour.
An artists depiction of Horizon I passing the planet Eve
It was truly amazing to witness a never-before-attempted mission roll out so successfully on the first attempt. Four correction burns of the probes thrusters over a period of eight days ensured that Horizon would pass in front of the planet to capture it's day-lit side.
Horizon I takes a snap-shot of Eve is it enters the planets gravity-well
'Instruments detected the moment when the pull of Eve's gravity became more influential than our star's. This shift happened forty-one days after launch.' Gene Kerman stated. 'The probe traveled for more than a day after that encounter before it reached it's closest point. And intsruments suggested that the gravity of Eve is far stronger than that of Kerbin. But there is still much data to go through.'
Perhaps the most striking features are what appear to be silvery oceans on the surface. It was thought that Eve would be too close to our star to have liquid water on it's surface. Any water should evaporate into the atmosphere.
Six images taken by Horizon I as it swung by the planet Eve
The images clearly show what looks like liquid oceans on the surface along with an unmistakable giant crater. It is already theorised, due to the locations of the 'oceans', that a super-giant ice-comet is responsible for depositing the liquid after impacting the planet. This perhaps happened quite recently and has temporarily cooled the planet, explaining why the liquid is present on the surface.
'Maybe we were wrong about the planet being too hot,' Gene said when asked. 'Or perhaps a large body of ice crashed into the planet, sending temperatures plummeting enough to cool the planet so water can exist on the surface for hundreds or even thousands of years. It would be Eve's version of an ice-age. Except the planet isn't cool enough for ice to form, so steam in the atmosphere turns to water. Like I say, there is still a lot of data to go through. The next step would be to put a probe into orbit that can study Eve over a long period. We might even find that these oceans are plains of solid crystal for all we know. Perhaps a lander might be considered so we can get readings first-hand from the surface.'
A colour-enhanced image shows Eve in a more true-to-life appearance
Horizon I has undoubtedly raised more questions about the planet than it has answered. At it's closest point, the probe passed Eve at an altitude of 765,000km, where instruments detected that the gravity pull was already two-and-a-half times stronger than the surface of the Mun. Eve is slightly bigger than Kerbin, and is now thought to have much stronger gravity and a thicker atmosphere. Huge interest has been sparked in the scientific community and there are already buzzes about the next mission to the planet. Some people are wondering whether the planet contains life if there is liquid water present. This, however, will be left for future Horizon missions to answer.
Horizon turned it's camera to take one last image of Eve before it ran out of fuel
Eve's sole tiny and rocky moon, Gilly, was also captured up close for the first time
Horizon I sent it's final stream of data back eleven days after passing the planet. The probe is now in a permanent orbit around our star after it spent two days within Eve's influence. It ran out of fuel shortly after leaving the planet. It's systems were shut down and communications terminated earlier today after nearly fifty-four days of operation.
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