NASA's New Horizons spacecraft made headlines after successfully making the closest approach to Pluto on July 14. But the mission has not ended yet, the spacecraft is still sending pictures of the dwarf planet on earth and these pictures are unprecedented ones.

The images are not only restricted to Pluto, but show its five moons and incredible data packets too. Some amazing science data was sent by the spacecraft last Friday, showing beautiful view of Pluto backlit by the Sun.

However, data transmission is very slow due to huge distance between earth and the spacecraft. The probe has to share its “talking time” with NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). DSN is basically a special worldwide network of large antennas that support interplanetary missions.

Most engineering data will be beamed back to earth over the next few weeks. Scientists have been pretty clear for years on the fact that Pluto does have an atmosphere, but it’s the first time that they are able to gain insight into it, thanks to the probe.

It was in 1988 when the first detection of Pluto's atmosphere came during a stellar occultation. New Horizons made it possible for scientists to have their first direct observation of Pluto's atmosphere.

“For many years we referred to Pluto as the Everest of planetary exploration. It's fitting that the two climbers who first summited Earth's highest mountain have their names on this new Everest”, said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute.