Pluto photos: Our solar system's most distant planet, as seen from NASA's New Horizons

Spacecraft completes flyby, making closest approach at 7:49 a.m. EDT

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Published July 14, 2015

After more than nine years and three billion miles, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft whizzed past Pluto this morning, making its closest approach to the distant dwarf planet at 7:49 a.m. EDT. The images and data captured along the way have given scientists new insights into the outermost planet in our solar system and its largest moon, Charon.

New Horizons passed Pluto at 30,800 miles per hour with its suite of seven science instruments busily gathering data. The mission completes the initial reconnaissance of the solar system with the first-ever look at the icy dwarf planet.

The video below captures the historic moment as it happened at JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory.

Posted in Science+Technology

Tagged applied physics laboratory, space exploration, nasa, new horizons