NASA has been tense with anticipation for the last few weeks as its spacecraft, New Horizons, barreled through deep-space at over 30,000 mph on its way to Pluto. Now, the spacecraft's mission to the dwarf planet, which was first established more than 10 years ago, is nearing an end.
But the amazing photos and footage of Pluto have just begun!
To get an idea of just how incredible this is, check out a similar video released in 2009 (GIF shown below).
It's hard to believe that just six years ago, this was the best view we had of Pluto. New Horizons is completely changing the way we see and understand this dwarf planet.
On average, Pluto is more than 3 billion miles from Earth and is about one-fifth the size of Earth. That makes the tiny dwarf planet impossible to see in any sort of detail with instruments on Earth.
Therefore, Pluto has been a big question mark for the last 85 years, since Clyde Tombaugh discovered it in 1930. NASA has explored every planetary system in the solar neighborhood, from Mercury to Neptune, but for decades Pluto remained untouched. No longer.
Pluto's largest moon Charon is on the left with Pluto on the right.
Earlier today, New Horizons made its closest visit to Pluto, just 7,550 miles away.
Although NASA hasn't received the photos from that historic flyby yet - because New Horizons hasn't transmitted them to Earth - the latest photo from New Horizons that it took before its closest approach is incredible:
