Even though in recent times the Planet Pluto was demoted from "full" planet status, to that of "Dwarf" planet status (with apologies to Snow White), it is still a very interesting object in our solar system. It has an atmosphere at least 3 moons and possibly even water on it's surface or interior.
Best Image to date we have of Pluto and it's moons.
What you might not know is that for the past 7 years there has been a probe sent by the United States that has been steadily making it's way toward this icy 400 degrees below zero planet and it's nearly equal in size moon Charon (pronounced "Karon").
Trajectory of New Horizons Spacecraft as of October 16, 2012
Launched in January 2006 the New Horizons spacecraft will arrive at Pluto in June of 2015.
New Horizon's Spacecraft
Pluto was the only outer planet missed by the planetary tours of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecrafts of the late 70's and early 1980's. Here is a you tube video showing the 2 spacecraft's trajectories
Jupiter As Imaged From Voyager 1
Saturn As Imaged From Voyager 1
Uranus as Imaged From Voyager 2
Neptune As Imaged From Voyager 2
Only one thousand more days folks... Can't wait ... counting the minutes already ....
What New Discoveries Will Be Made in Just 1000 days ?
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