New Issue: Orbital Catastrophe Ahead? Read Now

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.

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

00

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.

More by S. Alan Stern
Scientific American Magazine Vol 286 Issue 5This article was published with the title “Journey to the Farthest Planet” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 286 No. 5 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican052002-77rAfplNqKMbu1jZoBS513

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe