Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System
- ISBN-10
- 0471152978
- ISBN-13
- 9780471152972
- Category
- Science / Space Science / Astronomy
- Pages
- 216
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1998
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Authors
- Alan Stern, Jacqueline Mitton
Description
"It has become clear in the 1990s that Pluto and Charon are not odd misfits among the giant planets but are instead the first and most easily detected examples of a large population of small, ice-dwarf planets that were formed in the ancient outer solar system. As such, Pluto and Charon represent more than just a frontier: They are now understood to be a fundamental link between the classical planets and the myriad small bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. Among the five fascinating and fantastic frozen outer planets, Pluto is the rogue--and only Pluto remains unexplored." --From Pluto and Charon
Pluto and Charon explores the remote, ice-bound reaches of our planetary system in an interwoven tale of exotic Pluto, its unusual satellite companion Charon, and the dynamic, high-technology world of twentieth-century astronomy. Astronomers Alan Stern and Jacqueline Mitton recount a story of planetary astronomy at its frontier. The book begins with a description of the dramatic discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, and continues through to the latest images of Pluto taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and the effort to build Pluto Express, a NASA reconnaissance mission to the only planet not yet visited by spacecraft.
Stern and Mitton vividly present the major events in the discovery and exploration of the distant Pluto-Charon and introduce the reader to the researchers whose ingenuity and determination opened up the outer solar system for all to appreciate. Their light and accessible narrative transforms our view of Pluto and Charon from the vague awareness of a faint pinprick of light slowly moving against the constellations into a richer appreciation for a pair of ice worlds with an astonishingly wide range of remarkable attributes. So too, as Stern and Mitton describe, astronomers have evolved their view of Pluto from a planetary footnote to the gateway to the deep outer solar system.
Three themes thread this new book. The first concerns the advances made possible by dramatic improvements in ground-based astronomical instrumentation. Second is the revolution in scientific perspective wrought by spacecraft visits to the planets. Stern and Mitton's third theme concerns the cultural revolution that has taken place as humans, born and bred on Earth, have come to know exotic and far distant worlds as real places.
Pluto and Charon is the definitive account of the outermost planet in our solar system, its satellite, and its context in the outer solar system. Peppered with tantalizing predictions of discoveries yet to be made, this innovative and accessible book will be valued by all who are interested in science, astronomy, and the exploration of distant frontiers.
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