{"id":12836,"date":"2015-07-15T10:42:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T14:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=12836"},"modified":"2015-07-15T10:42:40","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T14:42:40","slug":"cos-connection-to-historic-pluto-flyby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/cos-connection-to-historic-pluto-flyby\/","title":{"rendered":"COS Connection to Historic Pluto Flyby"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>

Image courtesy of NASA<\/p><\/div>\n

When the New Horizons<\/a> spacecraft passed within a mere 7,750 miles of Pluto on Tuesday, many at the University of Central Florida cheered for the historic flight and its leader, Alan Stern<\/a>, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

Stern, whose advocacy, tenacity and some would say sheer bull-headedness are largely to credit for the selection and execution of NASA\u2019s farthest-ever look into deep space, is chief science officer for UCF\u2019s Florida Space Institute<\/a>(FSI).<\/p>\n

He also served as interim director of FSI from 2011-2013, establishing nearly $1 million in funding for space-related research projects and facilitated the center\u2019s move, after 22 years, from Merritt Island to the Central Florida Research Park<\/a>. He was also instrumental in recruiting the center\u2019s current director, Ramon Lugo<\/a>. Both Stern and Lugo have extensive experience working for, and with, NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that research is the key to keeping UCF and Florida in the forefront of space exploration,\u201d Stern said when he accepted that role.<\/p>\n

UCF is still benefiting from that focus, said MJ Soileau<\/a>, Ph.D., UCF\u2019s vice president for research & commercialization and Stern\u2019s boss during that interim stint.<\/p>\n

A special edition of UCF\u2019s science caf\u00e9 last month featuring Stern talking about New Horizons attracted more than 200 attendees, including many students excited about the next generation of space exploration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlan accomplishes more in a week than many do in a year \u2013 his continued involvement with FSI helps elevate some of the already outstanding research being done across the state,\u201d Soileau said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday Soileau and Lugo will join Stern and what is expected to be a capacity crowd of scientists and press at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory<\/a> in Laurel, Maryland, where New Horizons was designed and built and which serves as the mission\u2019s control room.<\/p>\n

While the observers will get some visual confirmation of the approach on Tuesday, the highest- resolution images and other data will take months to fully process and download. The closest approach will occur at 7:49:57 EDT.<\/p>\n

The New Horizons mission heralds a series of firsts for NASA \u2013 it is the first mission to Pluto and the surrounding Kuiper Belt, it has traveled a longer time (9 and a half years) and farther away (4.67 billion miles) than any other space mission in history, and it has already returned the first color images of Pluto.<\/p>\n

Stern is leading New Horizons in his role as vice president for Southwest Research Institute<\/a>. Live coverage of the mission is available at pluto.jhuapl.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the original story posted by UCF Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the New Horizons spacecraft passed within a mere 7,750 miles of Pluto on Tuesday, many at the University of Central Florida cheered for the historic flight and its leader, Alan Stern, Ph.D. Stern, whose advocacy, tenacity and some would say sheer bull-headedness are largely to credit for the selection and execution of NASA\u2019s farthest-ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":12837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,4,13,14,28,29],"tags":[736,2571,2686,3457,3723],"class_list":["post-12836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-departments","category-news","category-physics-departments","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-orlando","tag-physics","tag-ucf","tag-university-of-central-florida"],"yoast_head":"\nUCF's Connection to Historic Pluto Flyby<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When the New Horizons spacecraft passes within a mere 7,750 miles of Pluto on Tuesday, many at the University of Central Florida will be cheering for the historic flight and its leader, S. 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