Although Pluto may have lost its standing as a Planet in our solar system, it does not mean scientists and astronomers have lost their fascination with Pluto. A spacecraft named New Horizons has been traveling in space for nine years across our solar system to reach the dwarf planet Pluto and begin scientific observations. It has been announced, on Saturday at 12 p.m. Pacific time, an alarm clock on the New Horizons craft, will wake it up and begin its final operations of observing the dwarf planet a few weeks later on January 15th.

Although Pluto is apart of our solar system, scientists admit we know very little about the dwarf planet. From its discovery in 1930 till the 1990’s little was known about Pluto and its orbital tendencies. The most significant discover came in the 1990’s when astronomers realized Pluto did not orbit alone, but rather was a part of a complex system of more than 1,000 bodies called the Kuiper belt. This is what has lead the debate on weather or not Pluto can really be called a planet, without giving these other 1000 bodies the same distinction.

“The geophysical definition of a planet is that the object has enough mass that its gravity holds it in a perfect sphere,” said Harold Weaver, of Johns Hopkins and the principal project scientist on the mission. “Pluto is almost a perfect sphere, and on this mission we will find out if has enough mass that it deserves to be in the planet category.”

For the first time in human history we are going to have high resolution images of Pluto, while other instruments will be functioning as tools of study on the chemical makeup of Pluto’s atmosphere and surfaces.

As reported by the LATimes, “We are so very looking forward to turning this very fuzzy little image of a distant planet into something real,” said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, and the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission. “Our knowledge of Pluto is like our knowledge of Mars, 50 years ago.”