Scientists are going nuts on Twitter days before we arrive at the last unexplored world in our solar system

Julia Calderone

Jul 13, 2015, 19:59 IST

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The countdown to our closest approach to Pluto has begun. In less than 24 hours, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will complete its 4.6 billion-mile journey to the distant, icy dwarf planet.

Devoted fans and dedicated scientists have been waiting patiently for nearly a decade for this since New Horizons launched in 2006. The mission will bring back the most detailed images of Pluto and its moons to date. Such images will be hundreds of times more clear and thousands of times closer than our current best images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

And scientists are getting a little giddy and silly as the encounter nears:

Not having any fun at all at the flyby.... at all. ;-) pic.twitter.com/RQYo2YlgDC
- AlanStern (@AlanStern) July 10, 2015

I suspect it will be hard for team members to avoid making "whoosh" sound effects during the flyby.
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 10, 2015

Wait a second - that's no moon... pic.twitter.com/R0LssKN3ad
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 9, 2015

HeyHeyHiYes you hiPLUTO AMIRITEhi
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 9, 2015

NOSLEEPTILL PLUTO
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 12, 2015

plutoplutoplutopluto #pluto #plutoplutopluto pic.twitter.com/PDwu2aKMFF
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 13, 2015

A new meme has even popped up, where users are showing how scientists on the New Horizons team would react to particular situations via gif:

Pluto scientists, for the last nine years of New Horizons' flight: pic.twitter.com/GVBUnrxhHj
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 10, 2015

Pluto scientists, now that data is coming back from New Horizons: pic.twitter.com/VtEWt2mhYa
- Alex Parker (@Alex_Parker) July 10, 2015

Pluto scientists, now that data is coming back from New Horizons: #Pluto #NASA #NewHorizons pic.twitter.com/iUQ3tVV8Mi
- Heather Archuletta (@Pillownaut) July 10, 2015

Pluto scientists, for last 9 years of New Horizons flight: #Pluto #NASA #NewHorizons pic.twitter.com/tcpAXvQbXc
- Heather Archuletta (@Pillownaut) July 10, 2015

Less than 2 days to Pluto and the space community be like pic.twitter.com/SslitQrtlj
- Catherine Q. (@CatherineQ) July 12, 2015

And on Sunday, a new #plutoplaylist hashtag dropped, where fans and scientists are having fun changing the names of popular songs to include the word "Pluto" in the title.

This screams for a new hashtag. Like replacing one word in a song title w/ Pluto. Starting now. GO! #plutoplaylist https://t.co/ewCQ33jPcl
- Summer (@Summer_Ash) July 12, 2015