New Horizons: Ten facts about Nasa's astonishing Pluto mission and beyond

Spacecraft clocked fastest launch speed, recorded first video of volcanic eruption off Earth and carries the ashes of the man who discovered the dwarf planet

" New Horizons clocked the fastest launch ever recorded when it blasted off in January 2006, exceeding 36,000 miles per hour. The spacecraft passed the Moon after just nine hours and reached Jupiter the following year. It took just three minutes to cross the diameter of Pluto.

" The first images beamed back show that, at 2,370km (1,473 miles) in diameter, Pluto is slightly larger than previously believed. This makes it undisputedly the largest dwarf planet in the solar system. For the past decade astronomers had been undecided about whether this title belonged to Pluto or Eris, another planetary object beyond Neptune, although Eris still has a bigger mass. The extra volume means that Pluto must be less dense than thought, meaning it probably contains more ice beneath the surface.