Here's everything you need to know about the Pluto mission in a minute
Although the craft is "just" doing a flyby - swooping about 6,200 miles from the planet at about 31,000 miles per hour - the spacecraft is tricked out with seven scientific instruments that will beam back data that scientists will study for years to come.
New Horizons has "three optical instruments, two plasma instruments, a dust sensor and a radio science receiver/radiometer," NASA said in a press release. They will probe the planet-wide geology, the composition and temperature of its surface, the pressure and temperature of its atmosphere, and the speed at which Pluto and its moons' atmospheres are escaping into space.
For more quick and neat facts about the mission, and the science that is making this flyby possible, check out this 60-minute video by the NASA New Horizons channel on Youtube: