May 1, 2002

1 min read

Journey to the Farthest Planet

Scientists are finally preparing to send a spacecraft to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the last unexplored region of our planetary system.

By S. Alan Stern

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Pluto. Richard P. Binzel in Scientific American, Vol. 262, No. 6, pages 50-58; June 1990.

Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System. S. Alan Stern and Jacqueline Mitton. John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Beyond Pluto: Exploring the Outer Limits of the Solar System. John Davies. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

S. Alan Stern is a planetary scientist and associate vice president of the space science and engineering division at the Southwest Research Institute. He is principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and a former director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

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