A funny thing happened on the way to the planet Pluto...

New Horizons lifted off last January on the way to a planet- the last one we hadn't sent a probe to.

In the meantime, the deficiency has been remedied in an unanticipated way by the IAU decision to demote Pluto.

Imagine its surprise- if space probes had emotions- to arrive at merely the second-biggest Kuiper Belt Object instead!

Still, the value of this Pluto/Charon/Kuiper Belt mission isn't lessened by the IAU decision. We know comparatively little about that part of the Solar System, and New Horizons should drastically increase our information about it.

The probe's closest approach to Pluto will be on July 14, 2015.