Alan Stern

Alan Stern, chief scientist on NASA’s New Horizons mission, said Wednesday he had an emotional “meet Pluto moment” when new imagery from the faraway space probe arrived on Earth showing the mysterious world in more detail than ever before seen by human eyes.

Barreling toward a July 14 flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned its first color image of the distant world and its moon Charon, whetting the appetites of scientists as the probe prepares to begin taking the best-ever photos of the Pluto system beginning next month.