Pluto

Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft, which has travelled through the solar system for the past nine-and-a-half years, has made its closest approach to Pluto in the first-ever space mission to explore a world billions of miles from Earth.

The spacecraft flew around 7,750 miles above the surface of the 2,370km-wide dwarf world.

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Science and Technology director John Holdren said: "As New Horizons completes its flyby of Pluto and continues deeper into the Kuiper Belt, Nasa’s multifaceted journey of discovery continues."

The flyby gives access to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, a region colonised by icy objects that are likely to provide evidence about the formation of the solar system, Nasa said.

"The flyby gives access to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt [which is] likely to provide evidence about the formation of the solar system."

Nasa administrator Charles Bolden said: "The exploration of Pluto and its moons by New Horizons represents the capstone event to 50 years of planetary exploration by Nasa and the US.

"The US is the first nation to reach Pluto, and with this mission has completed the initial survey of our solar system, a remarkable accomplishment that no other nation can match."

In the coming days, New Horizons will investigate Pluto and its five known moons, Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.

The spacecraft will perform a series of manoeuvres to accumulate certain data and capture images. This data will then be sent back to Earth.

Image: Pluto as shown by the imager instrument aboard New Horizons spacecraft. Photo: courtesy of Nasa / APL / SwRI.