Spacecraft Makes Historic Encounter With Pluto Today

History was made today as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft became the first man-made object to fly by the dwarf planet Pluto and return images.

The mission has been almost 10 years in the making; New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006. Over that time, it traveled nearly three billion miles and is still going.

So, what did it see? Check out this composite photo taken just yesterday:

At this point, the New Horizons team is in "wait and see" mode. Obviously, being as far away as it is, the time to send back data takes hours. So they're anxiously waiting until around 9:00 tonight to see what New Horizons sends back.

We'll keep you updated on the historic mission as it develops.