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Scientific American

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.

More by S. Alan Stern
Scientific American Magazine Vol 286 Issue 5This article was originally published with the title “Journey to the Farthest Planet” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 286 No. 5 ()
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