After more than 9 years and 3 billion miles NASA’s New Horizon mission is now doing a flyby of Pluto and Charon. The satellite has passed within 8,000 km of the former planet, acquiring the highest resolution images to date. At its current distance, it takes approximately 4.5 hours to send images back to earth.
One early finding is that Pluto is slightly larger than previously believed, with a diameter of 2,370 km. Another item of interest is that Charon has a series of chasms larger than the Grand Canyon.
The New York Times has a nice page dedicated to the flyby, with great graphics of the flight path and other assorted images and graphics. You can view this at:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/14/science/space/pluto-flyby….
Once the craft leaves the Pluto “system” it will head to the Kuiper Belt if funding is extended. Follow the link below to the official NASA New Horizons site for ongoing updates and new images.