Welcome To Pluto!

  • Released Tuesday, July 14th, 2015
  • Updated Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 at 1:49PM
  • ID: 11913
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto after a 3-billion-mile journey.

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto after a 3-billion-mile journey.

After traveling for nine and a half years and three billion miles, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made a historic flyby of Pluto and its moons on July 14, 2015. The spacecraft, which launched in January 2006, is the first to visit Pluto and explore the frigid world up close. At its closest approach, the spacecraft was 7,750 miles from Pluto's surface. In the weeks leading up to the encounter, the spacecraft collected data and images of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. The images revealed areas of light and dark patches on Pluto's surface, which scientists believe are due to differences in its geology. Observations by New Horizons have already led to new findings about Pluto's size and its atmosphere. The spacecraft will travel beyond Pluto and explore other objects in the Kuiper Belt—a distant region of space made up of icy bodies that circle the sun. Explore the video and images to see views of Pluto taken by New Horizons.

This time-lapse video shows the moon Charon in orbit around Pluto. The video is assembled from six images taken by New Horizons.

Pluto is seen here with its largest moon, Charon, one of five known moons in the Pluto system.

Pluto is seen here with its largest moon, Charon, one of five known moons in the Pluto system.

Fuzzy images of Pluto taken by New Horizons on approach gave scientists an early look at its contrasting regions of light and dark terrain.

Fuzzy images of Pluto taken by New Horizons on approach gave scientists an early look at its contrasting regions of light and dark terrain.

From a distance of 2.5 million miles, surface features on Pluto started to come into focus of the spacecraft’s imaging cameras.

From a distance of 2.5 million miles, surface features on Pluto started to come into focus of the spacecraft’s imaging cameras.

This detailed image of Pluto was taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles from the surface.

This detailed image of Pluto was taken on July 13, 2015, when the spacecraft was 476,000 miles from the surface.

For More Information

See NASA.gov

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Video and images courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute