Pluto on the Eve of New Horizons: Webcast tonight

I'm off for the airport to fly to the East Coast to participate in the scientific conference "The Pluto System on the Eve of Exploration by New Horizons." The conference began yesterday, and attendees have been Tweeting up a storm using the hashtag #plutosci. I'll arrive this evening just in time for New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern's public talk, which will be webcast if you'd like to watch and listen too!

Excitement is really building for New Horizons' encounter with Pluto, which will culminate in July 2015 but which will really span the entire year. At this conference, scientists are taking stock of what we've learned from 83 years of scientific observation. As rich as New Horizons' data set will be, it'll be much more powerful because of the context it's being placed into.

Watch this space for blog entries about the current state of Pluto science!