Listen: The Journey to Pluto Began Because Scientists Disagreed With a Postage Stamp

The story of a 29-cent US Postal Service stamp that inspired scientists to undertake the journey to Pluto

Samanth Subramanian

The story of a 29-cent US Postal Service stamp that inspired scientists to undertake the journey to Pluto

listen the journey to pluto began because scientists disagreed with a postage stamp

The 29-cent Pluto 'Not Yet Explored' U.S. stamp. Source: USPS/collectSPACE

On July 15, 2015 (IST), NASA’s New Horizons prove flew past Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to do so. Much has been said about this nine-year, 4.8-billion km journey. However, this is the little-known story of the early years of Pluto’s exploration plan; the story of an innocuous US postage stamp that branded Pluto as “Not Yet Explored”, and how it fired up scientists’ desire to reach the dwarf planet.

This is the latest episode of The Intersection, a fortnightly podcast on Audiomatic. For more such podcasts visit audiomatic.in.

This article went live on July twenty-ninth, two thousand fifteen, at three minutes past nine in the morning.

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