Discovering Pluto

Exploration at the Edge of the Solar System

Dale P. Cruikshank, William Sheehan

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780816539383, 9780816534319
• eBook ISBN: 9780816538317
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Index: Biological Sciences

Discovering Pluto is an authoritative account of the exploration of Pluto and its moons, from the first inklings of tentative knowledge through the exciting discoveries made during the flyby of the NASA New Horizons research spacecraft in July 2015. Co-author Dale P. Cruikshank was a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission, while co-author William Sheehan is a noted historian of the Solar System.

Telling the tale of Pluto's discovery, the authors recount the grand story of our unfolding knowledge of the outer Solar System, from William Herschel's serendipitous discovery of Uranus in 1781, to the mathematical prediction of Neptune's existence, to Percival Lowell's studies of the wayward motions of those giant planets leading to his prediction of another world farther out. Lowell's efforts led to Clyde Tombaugh's heroic search and discovery of Pluto—then a mere speck in the telescope—at Lowell Observatory in 1930.

Pluto was finally recognized as the premier body in the Kuiper Belt, the so-called third zone of our Solar System. The first zone contains the terrestrial planets (Mercury through Mars) and the asteroid belt; the second, the gas-giant planets Jupiter through Neptune. The third zone, holding Pluto and the rest of the Kuiper Belt, is the largest and most populous region of the solar system.

Now well beyond Pluto, New Horizons will continue to wend its lonely way through the galaxy, but it is still transmitting data, even today. Its ultimate legacy may be to inspire future generations to uncover more secrets of Pluto, the Solar System, and the Universe.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Twenty-Seven Years and Three Billion Miles
• 2. A New Planet
• 3. Gaps
• 4. “With the Tip of a Pen”
• 5. Post-Discovery Controversies
• 6. The Search for Planet X
• 7. Clyde’s Planet
• 8. Planetary Astronomy
• 9. Planetary Science, New Technology, and the Discovery of Ice
• 10. Whence the Ices? Chemistry in the Solar System
• 11. Icy Earth and Beyond
• 12. Why Ice on Pluto Matters
• 13. New Discoveries and a New Paradigm
• 14. Ices Predict an Atmosphere
• 15. Surprise! A Moon Is Found
• 16. More Than Ice: Some Extraordinary Chemistry
• 17. Genesis of a Flight to Pluto
• 18. The Flight of New Horizons
• 19. Pluto and Charon: Marvelous Worlds
• 20. On to the Kuiper Belt
• Appendix 1: The New Horizons Science Team
• Appendix 2: The New Horizons Spacecraft
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors