An Epic Space Encounter

Every hour NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gets 31,000 miles closer to its July rendezvous with the former planet known as Pluto. Last week, to mark the 109th anniversary of the birth of Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, NASA revealed a new image of Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

As you can see in the image above, Pluto and Charon are finally more than a pinpoint of light to New Horizons. The image was captured on January 25, 2015 when New Horizons was was still 126 million miles from Pluto. 
New Horizons has been in flight since early 2006 and has travelled more than 3 billion miles. It will speed through a close approach with Pluto and its five moons on July 14, 2015. During its encounter with Pluto, New Horizons will map the global geology and topography of Pluto and Charon, determine their surface composition and temperature, measure Pluto’s atmosphere, study Pluto’s smaller moons Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra, and search for new moons and rings. It will be an epic encounter.