New Horizons probe getting ready for Pluto fly-by

A special space craft that's hoping to capture the first ever clear images of the surface of Jupiter is closing in on the dwarf planet.

The New Horizons probe has been travelling to Pluto for nearly ten years.

It's hoping to take hundreds of pictures and other types of data as it flies past Pluto and its five moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra.

This is timed to happen at 12.50pm (UK time).

The image was taken on Thursday from a distance of 5.4 million km

This data will help scientists here on Earth to find out more about the planet.

Pluto is more than three billion miles away from Earth, and is the only planet that scientists have yet to explore in detail.

New Horizons has been sending back some incredible pictures of Pluto, so far.

After it has finished it's fly-by New Horizons will continue to travel out into the edges of our solar system, where we have never explored before.