Mission to Pluto: The First Visit to an Ice Dwarf and the Kuiper Belt

In this entry in the Scientists in the Field series, Carson and Uhlman trace the efforts of NASA scientist Alan Stern and his team as they sent the spacecraft New Horizons to Pluto. The narrative opens in July 2015, just as the first images of the dwarf planet were unveiled. Carson then backtracks to explore the path that led to this feat, including Clyde Tombaugh’s 1930 discovery of Pluto, campaigns to mount a Pluto mission, and how the New Horizons project took shape. Carson maintains a thrilling sense of immediacy, bolstered by Uhlman’s on-the-scene photos—and, of course, New Horizon’s dramatic images of Pluto and its fellow residents of the Kuiper belt. Ages 10–12. (Jan.)