On Pluto Time: Q&A with New Horizons Leader Alan Stern

This past July, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft provided the first good looks at Pluto, and the piano-size probe might not be done exploring the solar system's outer reaches. New Horizons performed the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14, revealing the dwarf planet to be a complex and diverse world with tall mountains, nitrogen-ice glaciers and some areas of surprisingly young terrain. The spacecraft is now cruising through the frigid Kuiper Belt — the ring of bodies beyond Neptune's orbit