Tom Uhlman

Librarians, this is the book you've been waiting for to update your outdated solar system shelf with the latest word on Pluto. Mission to Pluto is comprehensive, covering Pluto's discovery, early observation, and exploration and early science results from New Horizons. It's all wrapped in an exciting narrative about the encounter, featuring the voices of several scientists and engineers from the mission, including Alan Stern, Alice Bowman, and Fran Bagenal. The book does a good job of confining the tiresome planethood debate to a single page, and spending the rest of its 72 pages on the exciting adventure and fantastic science of the New Horizons mission to Pluto...and beyond.… (meer)

Close your eyes. Picture something that is 3 feet away from you right now? (Easy right?) Now picture something about 3 billion miles away from you?
...........
........... PLUTO! Was that you answer?

We can picture Pluto as an icy ball floating in space today, but in 1930 this was not the case. When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, in 1930, all he saw was a speck of light. Thanks to technology updates over time, scientists discovered that this planet was icy & had 5 moons. On August 24, 2006, Pluto got reclassified to dwarf planet.

This book begins talking about New Horizons's (a spacecraft) first encounter with Pluto. This was the first time, in 2015, humans ever got close, with technology, to this mystery icy dwarf planet. All major tv crews, scientists, and celebrities were at the Pluto flyby event to witness this long-awaited encounter. Even Bill Nye was there!

This book explains how Pluto first got discovered and how we know today's information. The main part I was curious about was why the changing of Pluto's category from planet to dwarf planet. This book explains it all. It goes into great detail about Pluto facts as well as Pluto's five moons. I learned a lot from the book considered I got taught Pluto was a planet when I was in elementary school.

The author's life revolves around science and she was even at the great Pluto Flyby even in 2015. She has written many books about science-related things; weather, space, nature, etc. This author is definitely qualified to write this book.

The back of the book contains a list of 40+ words that are 'words to know'. This is amazing because if a child doesn't know the word they can look it up very easily. 'Find out more' is also in the back of the book. It lists links to many different social media if you wanted to find out more about New Horizons.

I love the comparison the author has made for children to understand better.
-Comparing Pluto and Charon to two spinning dancers who never break eye contact because Pluto's and Charon's orbits are doubled locked.
-Comparing the size of Pluto to our Earth and moon.
-A thousand times slower than a smartphone, when talking about the speed of information being sent from Pluto to Earth.

All of the 'scientists in the field' books are wonderful and make great sources!… (meer)

This addition to the Scientists in the Field series did not disappoint. It focuses upon the mission to explore Pluto, its moons & neighbors, and the Kuiper Belt. After a nine and half year trip the "small robotic spacecraft," New Horizons reached Pluto on July 14, 2015. The book details the scientists and researchers who made this mission possible and details the history of the journey beginning with the discovering of Pluto in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. With the aide of amazing photography, the book also details the purpose of the research and outlines the remaining work that New Horizons will complete. Additionally, the book has a glossary, extensive index, and bibliography for further research. I highly recommend this title for purchase by both school and public libraries.It would be excellent for advanced readers in grades 3rd-6th while also being of interest to readers through 12th grade.… (meer)