NASA flies you past Pluto in new animation

 By 
Miriam Kramer
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

A NASA animation puts you in the driver's seat as the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto in July.

The 23-second video gets you up-close-and-personal with Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, as the New Horizons probe speeds past the dwarf planet system.

"This animation, made with real images taken by New Horizons, begins with Pluto flying in for its close-up on July 14; we then pass behind Pluto and see the atmosphere glow in sunlight before the sun passes behind Charon," NASA said in the video description.

"The movie ends with New Horizons’ departure, looking back on each body as thin crescents."

New Horizons was the first spacecraft to get an up-close look at Pluto when it passed just 7,750 miles from the world's surface earlier this summer.

Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The probe is now speeding away from Pluto, heading farther into the Kuiper Belt -- a group of icy bodies that orbit the sun from the outskirts of the solar system.

New Horizons beamed back some images and data collected during its Pluto flyby, but it still needs to send most of the information collected during its close approach back to Earth, a process that could take about a year.

Assuming the mission gets extended funding from NASA, the spacecraft should also fly past another object in the Kuiper Belt in 2019.

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