This summer, parents around the world are going to endure that familiar whine from the backseat: are we there yet? At those moments just be thankful that your road trip is not as long as the journey of the New Horizons probe to humble Pluto. Here is a great website for the probe with the latest incredible imagery of Pluto and its moon Charon. New Horizons has been travelling for a decade now and it is going to rendezvous with Pluto in the next three weeks. This is history in the making as the world awaits the first up-close images of Pluto, a moment that will consign eighty years of “artist interpretations” of the frozen planetoid to the dustbin of history.
Erik Wernquist produced this beautiful short video explaining why we are going to Pluto. It’s well worth three minutes of your time: