New Horizons Flies by Pluto

New Horizons successfully performed its historic flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015. Zipping past the dwarf planet at 49,600 kilometers (30,800 miles) per hour, the spacecraft collected data on Pluto and its moons with its suite of science instruments. After completing the flyby, New Horizons phoned home to relay its success. The spacecraft collected so much data that it will take 16 months to send it all back to Earth. Mission scientists eagerly await the return of the data and some amazing imagery. New Horizons’ Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) captured this image of Pluto on July 13. The spacecraft was 766,000 kilometers (476,000 miles) from the dwarf planet.