The Last First Planetary Mission

September 14, 2016 • by Marc Airhart

University of Texas at Austin alumnus Alan Stern describes the challenges, and the joys, of the last first mission to a planet.

Artist's illustration of a spacecraft flying past a planet

The New Horizons spacecraft brought humanity face to face with the last unexplored planet in our solar system: Pluto. What we're learning is amazing. But, time and again, the mission almost didn't happen. University of Texas at Austin alumnus Alan Stern describes the challenges, and the joys, of the last first mission to a planet.

Share


The complicated structure at the centre of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. There is a bright source at the centre that is surrounded by greenish nebulosity and several looping lines in cream, orange and pink. One of these lines appears to form a ring oriented vertically and nearly edge-on around the bright source at the centre. Other lines trace out a figure eight shape. Moving outward from these complex lines and green nebulosity, there is a section of red light on either side of the object.

McDonald Observatory

Astronomers Investigate Complex Heart of a Cosmic Butterfly

An illustration demonstrating how a solar system is tilted with respect to the axis of its central star

McDonald Observatory

Some Young Suns Align with Their Planet-forming Disks, Others Are Born Tilted