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Google celebrates the New Horizons Pluto flyby with an adorable doodle

Google celebrates the New Horizons Pluto flyby with an adorable doodle

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Tuesday, July 14th might be Bastille Day in France, but the whole world will be watching and waiting to find out if the New Horizons spacecraft successfully makes its long-awaited flyby of Pluto. In honor of that interplanetary feat, Google has switched over to an adorable doodle that shows a cartoonish New Horizons zipping past the dwarf planet.

It's a simple doodle by most standards, though two details stick out. First, the doodle simply shows the job that New Horizons set out to accomplish nine years ago. Early on July 14th, the spacecraft will zoom past Pluto, making scientific measurements and taking images along the way. Second, the cartoon approximation of Pluto boasts the same heart-shaped geographical feature that set the internet abuzz last week.

Pluto Google doodle

Fans of the French Revolution shouldn't worry, because Google isn't completely ignoring Bastille Day in the name of Pluto. A separate doodle made specifically for the French holiday will be served up as well — but only to site visitors with a French IP address.

Update 9:39PM ET, July 13th: It appears Google did get one thing wrong:

Be sure to check out all the information you need to know about the historic Pluto Flyby