Today, NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto after a decade-long, 3-billion-mile journey through the solar system. It flew 7,750 miles above Pluto’s surface — about the same distance from New York to Mumbai, India — “making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth,” NASA said.

The United States is the first nation to reach Pluto.

The spacecraft is currently in “data-gathering mode” and not in contact with flight controllers. It’s scheduled to transmit status updates to Earth at 9 p.m. tonight.

The flyby of the dwarf planet and its five known moons will give the U.S. a close look at the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, a region filled with icy objects such as Pluto. As NASA puts it, they “preserve evidence about the early formation of the solar system.”

NASA said, “Because New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever launched – hurtling through the Pluto system at more than 30,000 mph, a collision with a particle as small as a grain of rice could incapacitate the spacecraft. Once it reestablishes contact Tuesday night, it will take 16 months for New Horizons to send its cache of data – 10 years’ worth — back to Earth.”

People across the world, including physicist-extraordinaire Stephen Hawking, have taken to social media to share the accomplishment. Live updates are available on the mission’s Facebook page.

Stephen Hawking NASA StatementI would like to congratulate the New Horizons team and NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration for their historic flyby of Pluto. The culmination of a decade long mission, I can’t wait to see what new information the New Horizons spacecraft will reveal about our distant relative. – SH

Posted by Stephen Hawking on Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Erin Rhoda is the editor of Maine Focus, a team that conducts journalism investigations and projects at the Bangor Daily News. She also writes for the newspaper, often centering her work on domestic and...

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