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9 Years After Launch, New Horizons Finally Reaches Pluto

Minutes ago, the probe made its closest approach to the orb

Jul 14, 2015 12:04 GMT  ·  By
New Horizons reaches Pluto at long last
   New Horizons reaches Pluto at long last

There's a whole lot of commotion happening at NASA right about now, and it's all because, just a few minutes ago, the agency's New Horizons spacecraft finally reached dwarf planet Pluto on the outskirts of our Solar System. New Horizons' encounter with Pluto happened at 7:49 a.m. EDT, right on schedule. 

To reach the orb and image it together with its moons, the New Horizon's probe spent nearly a decade traveling through space. Thus, it was in January 2006 that the spacecraft embarked on its adventure.

“Hello #Pluto! We’re at closest approach. Congrats to all!” US space agency NASA wrote in a Twitter post announcing the success of New Horizons' mission.

Latest info says today's flyby brought the probe within merely 7,750 miles (12,470 kilometers) of its target orb, making it the first spacecraft ever to visit this corner of our cosmic neighborhood.

Dwarf planet Pluto finds itself at a distance of about 4.67 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) from Earth when at its farthest and at a distance of 2.66 billion miles (4.28 billion kilometers) when its orbit brings it at its closest.

Mission scientists at NASA promise to release the images New Horizons obtained during today's historic flyby of Pluto as soon as the probe beams them back to Earth, so keep an eye on this page for updates.