This video perfectly captures why we are so excited about NASA's mission to Pluto
It's a mission that faced countless roadblocks and setbacks before it ever got off the ground. Now the spacecraft is closing in on Pluto and its moon system that sit at the very edge of our solar system.
This will be the first time we've ever visited the distant dwarf planet.
The National Space Society put together an incredible video preview of the history-making moment. It has the vibe of a movie trailer, complete with epic narration and stunning visuals, and it perfectly captures why space enthusiasts are so psyched about the New Horizons mission.
The video sweeps you through a timeline of the last half century of space exploration using beautiful images of each planet we've explored, starting with Venus in 1962 and ending with Neptune in 1989.
New Horizons will reach Pluto and its moons on July 14, and they will be "the farthest worlds ever to be explored by humankind," the video says.
So far that the sun appears as a faint dot:
And the moment we reach Pluto, we'll get an up close look at a world no one has seen before. All we've glimpsed of Pluto are fuzzy, far-away images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. New Horizons will send back images thousands of times closer. The closing line of the video is perfect and plays on the mission's name:"Who knows what wonders await us at these new horizons."
We'll have to wait and see.
NASA is already counting down the days, hours, minutes, and even seconds until the arrival.
You can watch the whole video below, which we definitely recommend: