1372 Days Until Our 1st Picture of Pluto

It's been nearly 2091 days since the New Horizons spacecraft was launched by NASA in it's remarkable 10 year journey to fly by Pluto and its surrounding moons, Nix, Charon, Hydra, and S/2011 P 1. The goal of the New Horizons spacecraft is to shed light on the mysteries that lie deep in the outside parts of our universe, and to give us our first ever close up picture of what Pluto looks like. So far, all recreated images have been based of the speculations of scientists across the globe, but in roughly 1372 days the spacecraft will be at its closest point to Pluto and will take pictures and other scientific readings of this massive dwarf planet.


New Horizons is the fastest ever man made object to be launched from Earth, traveling at an astonishing 36,373 mph after its last engine had shut down. Now, the spacecraft has slowed down to roughly 15 km/s, which is equivalent to about 33,000 mph.


The expected date that it will fly by Pluto is July 14, 2015, where the spacecraft will be a couple billion miles away from Earth. (The flight path that New Horizons has been on is shown above). Soon enough, we will have our first picture of the former planet Pluto.


To track New Horizons on its journey across the universe, go to NASA's website where its location and time of fly by is updated daily.