The countdown to our closest approach to Pluto has begun. In less than 24 hours, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will complete its 4.6 billion-mile journey to the distant, icy dwarf planet.
Devoted fans and dedicated scientists have been waiting patiently for nearly a decade for this since New Horizons launched in 2006. The mission will bring back the most detailed images of Pluto and its moons to date. Such images will be hundreds of times more clear and thousands of times closer than our current best images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
And scientists are getting a little giddy and silly as the encounter nears:
Not having any fun at all at the flyby.... at all. ;-) pic.twitter.com/RQYo2YlgDC
— AlanStern (@AlanStern) July 10, 2015
I suspect it will be hard for team members to avoid making "whoosh" sound effects during the flyby.
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 10, 2015
Wait a second - that's no moon... pic.twitter.com/R0LssKN3ad
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 9, 2015
Hey
Hey
Hi
Yes you hi
PLUTO AMIRITE
hi
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 9, 2015
NO
SLEEP
TILL PLUTO
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 12, 2015
plutoplutoplutopluto #pluto#plutoplutoplutopic.twitter.com/PDwu2aKMFF
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 13, 2015A new meme has even popped up, where users are showing how scientists on the New Horizons team would react to particular situations via gif:
Pluto scientists, for the last nine years of New Horizons' flight: pic.twitter.com/GVBUnrxhHj
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 10, 2015
Pluto scientists, now that data is coming back from New Horizons: pic.twitter.com/VtEWt2mhYa
— Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 10, 2015
Pluto scientists, now that data is coming back from New Horizons:
#Pluto#NASA#NewHorizonspic.twitter.com/iUQ3tVV8Mi
— Heather Archuletta (@Pillownaut) July 10, 2015
Pluto scientists, for last 9 years of New Horizons flight:
#Pluto#NASA#NewHorizonspic.twitter.com/tcpAXvQbXc
— Heather Archuletta (@Pillownaut) July 10, 2015
Less than 2 days to Pluto and the space community be like pic.twitter.com/SslitQrtlj
— Catherine Q. (@CatherineQ) July 12, 2015And on Sunday, a new #plutoplaylist hashtag dropped, where fans and scientists are having fun changing the names of popular songs to include the word "Pluto" in the title.
This screams for a new hashtag. Like replacing one word in a song title w/ Pluto. Starting now. GO! #plutoplaylisthttps://t.co/ewCQ33jPcl
— Summer (@Summer_Ash) July 12, 2015 
SEE ALSO: NASA just released the 1st clear photo ever taken of Pluto and its largest moon
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