• The probe shot past at more than 28,000 mph (45,000 km/h) at 12.49pm BST (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.
  • Images beamed back from New Horizons have shown Pluto in shades of red and orange, with hints of valleys, mountains and craters. On Tuesday Nasa released a new image of Pluto. The picture was taken at about 9pm BST (4pm ET) on 13 July, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles from the surface.
  • New Horizons is expected to continue its mission into the Kuiper belt. The spacecraft is powered by a nuclear generator that runs on plutonium, a substance named after the dwarf planet. The generator should run until the 2030s, when New Horizons will be 100 times further away than Earth is from the sun.

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