In the 85 years since it's discovery Pluto has been classified as a planet and relegated to dwarf planet status. But despite the attention paid attention to the small, distant ball of ice and rock, we've never gotten a clear look at the victim to Neil deGrasse Tyson's bullying.
Until today.
Shortly before New Horizons flyby, which will take the space probe offline until tonight, it sent the "sneak peek" image above. Two days ago the best picture we had of Pluto looked like this:
And a week ago we were stuck with this potato quality:
Should the mission go according to plan, we'll have even better images tonight. Until we find out if New Horizons survived, marvel at the newest image and the inevitable Twitter jokes.
BREAKING NEWS: Exclusive look at what NASA discovered when they finally reached Pluto. pic.twitter.com/dSowR2kudn
Even clearer images have emerged!!! #PlutoFlownBy #pluto #PlutoFlyby #NASANewHorizons #NewHorizons #nasa pic.twitter.com/dyziybZRqU
