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In a hugely impressive journey spanning almost 10 years (New Horizons launched 19 January 2006!), and 5 billion kilometers later, we’re finally going to be able to find out a lot more about this mysterious dwarf planet.

We’ve since had confirmation from New Horizons that everything is working as it should, and we should be receiving packets of information it amassed during the flyby.

Really exciting. Some of the things the mission hopes to find out from this endeavor are:

• Geology and morphology of Pluto and it’s moon Charon
• Map atmosphere and chemical compositions of Pluto and Charon’s surfaces
• Find out if there are aliens

Of course, Pluto, having already anticipated this visit, put out this huge heart of welcome to Earthlings, as seen in the header image.

Did you know, despite it’s small size, Pluto has 5 moons circling it; Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.

Here we see Pluto and it’s main man, Charon.