NASA's New Horizon's explorer is traveling through space on its way to the outermost reaches of the solar system to meet up with the small, "dwarf planet" of Pluto and its moons.
Its 3 billion mile, decade-long journey started with the New Horizons launch in 2006. The space probe should reach Pluto next summer, becoming the only spacecraft to visit it, according to CNN.
It will also become just the fifth spacecraft to journey that far from the sun, according to NASA.
Monday (Aug. 25) marked the 25th anniversary of Voyager 2's fly-by of Neptune and its moon Triton on August 25, 1989. The mission provided humanity its first close-up glimpse of the eighth planet from the sun and its largest satellite.
NASA has released a global color map of Triton using Voyager's extraordinary footage of the moon and a video of the fly-by to celebrate the 25th anniversary.
The space agency says the map's colors are a close approximation of the moon's natural colors.
NASA believes the image of Triton and the video provides a glimpse of what scientists expect once New Horizons reaches Pluto.
"Although Triton is a moon of a planet and Pluto is a dwarf planet, Triton serves as a preview of sorts for the upcoming Pluto encounter," NASA said on its website this week.
NASA also expects great differences in the large moon and dwarf planet, according to CNN.
"Although both bodies originated in the outer solar system, Triton was captured by Neptune and has undergone a radically different thermal history than Pluto. Tidal heating has likely melted the interior of Triton, producing the volcanoes, fractures and other geological features that Voyager saw on that bitterly cold, icy surface," NASA added.
Though Pluto is slightly smaller than Triton, it will likely be very different from Neptune's large moon. Researchers expect the dwarf planet to have similar features to Triton, including bulk composition, internal density, and similarly low temperatures on its frozen surface.
Voyager also found atmospheric plumes on Triton. The discovery made it "one of the active known bodies in the outer solar system, along with Jupiter's moon Io and Saturn's moon Enceladus," NASA researchers said, according to CNN.
Researchers are hoping the New Horizons mission will allow them to establish whether Pluto or its largest moon, Charon, falls into this category.
Space agency officials noted that when New Horizons makes its closest fly-by of Pluto on July 14, 2015, it won't be a replay of Voyager, but "more of a sequel and a reboot."
Since New Horizons is more technologically advanced than Voyager, and is also exploring a new planetary system, researchers expect to make new discoveries, according to CNN.
Two years ago this week, Voyager 1 reached interstellar space, which is defined as "the space between the stars," by Voyager Project Scientist Dr. Ed Stone.
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