In 2006, Pluto lost it’s big boy status and was deemed a dwarf planet. Pluto’s radius stands at a mere 715 miles. To put that into a bit of perspective, our moon has a radius of about 1,079.6 miles. Despite the ice rock’s comparatively microscopic size and its tremendous distance from Earth (4.67 billion miles), NASA had no intention of writing Pluto off. On January 19, 2006, NASA launched a spacecraft in hopes of reaching what was formerly known as the Milky Way’s ninth planet. More than nine years later, the spacecraft better known as New Horizons is still charging its way through our solar system at astonishing speed. New Horizons is moving at about 36,000 miles per hour. Thirty-six thousand. This staggering speed allows the world’s fastest spacecraft to travel about 1 million miles a day. In 2010, New Horizons reached its halfway point. But its mission wasn’t done there.

New Horizons continued to make such a strong push toward Pluto that it recently completed its mission. On July 14th, New Horizons reached Pluto's vicinity. As much as your friend is going to want to show you their photos and videos from their dreadful family week long vacation to Kansas, you may want to check out New Horizons’ decade long vacation footage instead. To see images and videos from the spacecraft's expedition, visit NASA's website. Footage from New Horizon’s Pluto trip has been available since July 15th at 3 p.m. E.T. However, regardless of the reason for your visit, the web page is still worth checking out, as plenty of videos, images, and information is still available.

You may want to visit New Horizons' web page, especially if you finished watching Cosmos and still want to explore our vast universe. Sadly, however, this exploration will be without brilliant astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.