At 7:49AM ET the New Horizons spacecraft performed its flyby maneuver past our outermost (known) dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon Charon. The probe is expected to pass by at at roughly 30,800mph within 7,800 miles of the former planet and 17,900 miles from Charon. Because of the 3+ billion mile distance to Earth, radio signals take ~4.5hrs to reach researchers on the ground. NASA will not know the fate of the spacecraft until later today since collision with orbiting debris is a dangerous possibility.
This simulation of the flyby is from NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System visualization software.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
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