It's official: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has gotten humanity's first up-close look at Pluto.
The spacecraft "phoned home" about its triumph Tuesday across 3 billion miles to scientists waiting breathlessly back home.
Confirmation of mission success came 13 hours after the actual flyby.
It was an unveiling of planetary proportions: The moment of closest approach for the New Horizons spacecraft came at 7:49 a.m. EDT Tuesday. It culminated an unprecedented journey spanning 9 1/2 years and 3 billion miles.
Hello #Pluto! We're at closest approach. Congrats to all! Follow our story & view new images using #PlutoFlyby. pic.twitter.com/8JVlJrcUkY
— NASA New Horizons (@NASANewHorizons) July 14, 2015
New Horizons is sending a flood of data to NASA now, and more pictures are expected Wednesday.
"You have made Pluto almost human," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden. "Pluto has features and character and everything, its because of the work that you've done and the way that you've presented it. I think that as we continue to look at the date and the images, we're going to be even further mesmorized by this incredible planet."
It was the final destination on NASA's planetary tour of the solar system, which began more than a half-century ago. Pluto was still a full-fledged planet when New Horizons rocketed away aboard an Atlas V rocket in January 2006, only to become demoted to dwarf status later that year.
NASA marked the moment live on TV, broadcasting from flight operations in Maryland.
The United States is now the only nation to visit every single planet in the solar system.
"The Pluto system is enchanting in its strangeness, its alien beauty," principal scientist Alan Stern told reporters Monday.
Discovered in 1930, Pluto is the largest object in the so-called Kuiper Belt, considered the third zone of the solar system after the inner rocky planets and outer gaseous ones. This unknown territory is a shooting gallery of comets and other small bodies. The flyby could re-invigorate the debate over Pluto's status as a dwarf planet. It was the ninth planet in the solar system, but it was demoted in 2006 — just a few months after New Horizons began its trek.
An extension of the $720 million mission, not yet approved, could have New Horizons flying past another much smaller Kuiper Belt object, before departing the solar system.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.