NASA's New Horizons spacecraft closing in on Pluto
The mysterious, distant and yet unexplored by any probe world of Pluto and its moons, located on the edge of our solar system, is about to get visited. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on July 14 will perform the first ever close-up flyby of the fallen planet. Downgraded in 2006 to dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Pluto holds key clues to our understanding of the formation of our solar system. New Horizons' Co-Investigator and Deputy Project Scientist Kimberly Ennico of NASA's Ames Research Center, shares the excitement about the historic encounter with Pluto. "This first ever arrival at Pluto will be a remarkable event!" Ennico told astrowatch.net. "It's been 25 years since we last had an 'interplanetary first encounter': the last was Voyager-2's August 1989 fly-by of Neptune and Triton. With New Horizons' July 2015 fly-by, Pluto, Charon [Pluto's largest moon] and the smaller moons will become 'real...