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Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
The image above is an artist's concept of what NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will look like flying past Pluto. The mission is the first to explore Pluto and its moons. New Horizons is scheduled to make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14. The images in this gallery take you from liftoff to the latest photos sent back to Earth by the probe.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
New Horizons launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on January 19, 2006, beginning a 3 billion-mile journey to Pluto. The probe, about the size of a piano, weighed nearly 1,054 pounds at launch. It has seven instruments on board to take images and sample Pluto's atmosphere. After it completes its five-month study of Pluto, the spacecraft will keep going deeper into the Kuiper Belt.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
Since Pluto was discovered in 1930, it has only been a speck of light in the best telescopes on Earth. That all changed in February 2010, when NASA released this photo. It was created by combining several images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope -- each only a few pixels wide -- through a technique called dithering. NASA says it took four years and 20 computers operating continuously to create the image.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
This was one of the best views we had of Pluto and its moon Charon before the New Horizons mission. The image was taken by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope on February 21, 1994.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto and its moons. Charon is the largest moon close to Pluto. The other four bright dots are smaller moons discovered in 2005, 2011 and 2012: Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
A white arrow points to Pluto in this photo taken in September 2006 from New Horizons. The spacecraft was still about 2.6 billion miles from Pluto.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
On its way to Pluto, New Horizons snapped these photos of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons. From left is Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
New Horizons captured this image of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io in early 2007.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
In August, New Horizons crossed the orbit of Neptune, the last planet on its journey to Pluto. New Horizons took this photo of Neptune and its large moon Triton when it was about 2.45 billion miles from the planet -- more than 26 times the distance between the Earth and our sun.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
New Horizons used its color imager called Ralph to capture this image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, on April 9. It's the first color image taken by a spacecraft approaching Pluto and Charon, according to NASA. The spacecraft was about 71 million miles away from Pluto when the photo was taken.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
New Horizons took a series of 13 images of Charon circling Pluto over the span of 6.5 days in April. As the images were being taken, the spacecraft moved from about 69 million miles from Pluto to 64 million miles.
Pluto on the horizon 12 photos
Look carefully at the images above: They mark the first time New Horizons has photographed Pluto's smallest and faintest moons, Kerberos and Styx. The images were taken between April 25 to May 1. New Horizons is now within sight of all five of Pluto's known moons. The probe is set to make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14.
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