In July of 2015, everybody suddenly got very excited about a tiny dwarf planet in the frozen backwaters of our solar system. When the New Horizons probe successfully completed its flyby of Pluto, we were able to glimpse images of the impossibly distant dwarf planet in astonishing detail. We saw the distinctive heart on its surface, its thin atmosphere tailing away into space, and, ever since the flyby, New Horizons has been beaming back ever more detailed pictures of the dwarf planet's surface. We have since been able to peer at its mountainous surface in exquisite detail, and even study its five moons, the largest of which being Charon. We now know that the famous "heart" feature of Pluto's surface is a vast, icy plain that butts up to an enormous rocky mountain range. New Horizons will not hang around Pluto for long, however, as it will eventually move on, diving into the Kuiper Belt and eventually leaving the solar system forever.
