NASA Probe Reaches Pluto [VIDEO]

It's an historic occasion for space exploration as NASA's New Horizons probe becomes the first spacecraft to reach the distant dwarf planet, the last unexplored world in solar system.

The probe shot past Pluto at more than 28,000mph yesterday at 7.49am ET on a trajectory that brought the fastest spacecraft ever to leave Earth’s orbit within 7,770 miles of Pluto’s surface.

Here's a little history on the journey of the probe.

New Horizons is expected to continue its mission into the Kuiper belt. The spacecraft is powered by a nuclear generator. According to NASA, the generator should run until the 2030s, when New Horizons will be 100 times further away than Earth is from the sun.

NASA also confirmed Pluto to have a thin nitrogen atmosphere which leaks far out beyond the dwarf planet’s surface. Pluto is also larger than previously thought, at 1,470 miles across.