The most detailed photos ever seen of the dwarf planet Pluto captured the world's attention on Tuesday, July 14, with the close approach of the NASA spacecraft New Horizons. Launched in 2006 and reaching a speed of 58,536 km/h (36,373 mph), the probe began sending back high resolution, true colour photos of Pluto and its moons as it moved closer to the planet. Currently, New Horizons is 7.5 billion kilometres (4.67 billion miles) from Earth, continuing its route towards the Kuiper Belt on the outskirts of our solar system. As well as photos, the craft has also been scanning the topography of Pluto and discovering the planet's chemical compositions.
New photos beamed from New Horizons show detailed craters on the frozen grey-brown planet, however earlier data and photos exist due to the efforts of pioneer astronomers from Czechoslovakia. While pre-discovery photos exist of Pluto hidden amongst thousands of stars, once it was determined to be a planet, the first defined photo aimed solely at the newly recognised planet was taken by Czechoslovak astronomer Bohumil Šternberk in 1930 at the Hurbanovo Observatory in south west Slovakia.
