Customer Reviews

Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a well-written and enjoyable summary of what we know about Pluto and its relatively huge moon Charon. However, the fact of the matter is we don't know much because we have yet to send a spacecraft to this fascinating double planet! Stern and Mitton do a great job presenting the timeline of our discoveries about Pluto as well as the latest theories on the compositions and origin of these bodies.

I was especially impressed with the discussion of Pluto's atmosphere changing as a result of the planet's greatly elliptical orbit around the Sun. In addition, the authors give a great detailed breakdown of the discoveries gleaned from the mutual occultations in the late 80s. Also, this book was written several years ago but we have since indeed found many more Kuiper Belt objects that lend great credibility to the theory of Pluto simply being one of the largest of that family.

Too much time was spent on describing the birth and continuing struggles of the Pluto Express project. This discussion would have been more appropriate if the spacecraft had even launched, let alone successfully completed its mission. But the fact is that NASA's funding issues have kept the project grounded for now. Hopefully it'll fly in the next couple years. If it doesn't, much of the mission may be compromised because Pluto is getting farther from the Sun each day and as a result its atmospheric activity is dying.

Overall a great effort and worth your time. Don't expect incredible revelations and photographs though, because we still have yet to visit the place!

A well written historic perspective on our outer-most-planet that by books' end will change your view of our solar system.

A thoroughly enjoyable easy-to-read book. More hard science/discovery books should be written this way.

It's not just the facts that are amazing but the proven-wrong theories we use to have on Pluto. Too bad we're still waiting for our first encounter with this mysterious planet. If history proves right, the Voyager probes were just another step in our discovering the 'real' solar system.

What I really liked about this book was the very irreverent tone which did not take away one bit from the scientific rigor of the presentation. The authors have a sense of humor and a genuine passion for their subject and it shows. I also liked the fact that in order to present the history of the Pluto/Charon system the book had to explain the latest hot-off-the-presses revolution in our understanding of the evolution of the Solar System. This was the first time I have been exposed to the idea of massive planets cleaning out all the early system planetisimals and the implications for the formation of the Kuiper Belt and other solar systems. It's rare to find a serious science book which is hard to put down, but this is it. Great exposition, great story, great book.

If you don't know much about the "King of the Kuiper Belt", read this book, and you will have a very clear scientific description of this "massive comet"...

This book is complete, starting from the historic discovery (blind luck, really) of Pluto, the subsequent observations that kept on shrinking the planet, then the suprising discovery of Charon, the fortuitious Pluto/Charon occultation, and the latest HST results.

Easy to read, and yet technical enough, this book will probably make you love this planet, even though it's only a big comet saved from destruction by its orbital resonance with Neptune... and will make you hate NASA (or the US Congress) for not going forward with their Pluto Express probe.

Just think, it was not that long ago that so little was known about Pluto that one would have been hard pressed to write more than a few paragraphs about this far-off world. Now we are fortunate to have an entire book, clearly written, about what scientists now know about Pluto and its moon Charon. Plutophiles should also attempt to locate the book OUT OF THE DARKNESS by Clyde Tombaugh (Pluto's discoverer) and Patrick Moore; and planet fans in general should certainly check out PLANET QUEST by Ken Croswell.

I'm an amateur astronomer of over 40 years. With my 20 inch scope all I will ever see of Pluto is a speck. Its small and so incredibly far away. I have hundreds of minor space object interests. Pluto and Charon are one of my minor interests. Mars is my major interest.

I'm doing a review of this book not my views of new spending of taxpayers money for Pluto probes.

I read Clyde Tombaugh Discover of Planet Pluto (Sky and Telescope observers series) and really liked it as an introduction of Pluto and Clyde Tombaugh. 5 stars see my review. That book got me interested to learn a little more about Pluto. Moon Charon was a pleasant extra.I wanted to reach a mid level understanding of Pluto and Pluto and Charon by Alan Stern and Jacqeline Mitton does that very well.

There is no heavy math in the book. The authors do a great job of keeping the book light, crisp and interesting without getting clogged down with heavy math. There are nice pictures of the various scientists and administrators through the years of different parts of Pluto and then Charon discovery. The book is laid out in a well documented time table of discovery. We learn why it took decades after Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto get more information and details of Pluto. We just didn't have the technology then.

We see increasingly more sophisticated technology invented and the use of better instruments through the decades.

Its extremely difficult to get an image of Pluto. Even with a huge 200 inch scope we still have to fight the atmosphere and "seeing", plus the disadvantage of Pluto being so far away.

Now we have CCD cameras with multi mega pixel resolution and the Hubble telescope, plus now we have huge radio telescopes. Years back there was just crude photographic plates.

We learn how moon Charon was discovered and how the size of Pluto and Charon were obtained as well as the extremely weak atmosphere of Pluto. We see how the atmosphere changes as Pluto gets closest to the sun and farthest away ( Pluto has a gigantic elliptical orbit). Even so its extremely cold only 40 to 70 degrees K above absolute zero.

We learn why Pluto has such a high brightness reflection percentage and Charon not as much. We learn Pluto is laying on its side even more so than Uranus. I found it very interesting them confirming their findings of Pluto having an extremely weak atmosphere by observing Pluto occluding a star. Fascinating stuff. Spectral analysis of Pluto is also used.

We see the 3 theories of Pluto's creation more or less disproved and the major theory of a large impact by a large body helped create Charon. Its incredible that Charon is almost half the size of Pluto and they are in effect binary worlds.

Also the discovery that there hundreds perhaps thousands of small bodies between Neptune and Pluto and hundreds of thousands in the Oort cloud way past Pluto. So we learn Pluto has many tiny sisters. Much more is discussed and presented in the book in a logical orderly way.

This book got me to a mid level knowledge level and appreciation of Pluto and Charon and the various scientists that gave so much time and effort exploring and getting data on such a difficult planet and moon. Hats off to them! Thanks Alan and Jacquelin for getting me up to speed on Pluto and Charon. I'm sure much more will be learned in the future. 5 stars

As a resident of a small, dark, cold and remote place in Arctic Alaska, I join many of our 4,200 residents in protesting the demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet status.
This book shows that as we explore the outer regions of the solar system, we are finding so much more than rock-solid, unchanging frozen outposts.
Even before the New Horizons spacecraft reaches Pluto/Charon in 2015, the authors carefully summarize decades of precise science to learn a lot about this dynamic system
We already know that Pluto has an atmosphere, and may resemble Neptune's surprisingly active moon Triton, which has ice geysers, long vapor and dust trails and evidence of a changing surface.
We learn about the hard work, and frequent frustration as astronomers travel around the world to find vantage points when Charon passes in front of Pluto, or Pluto passes in front of a star.
Imagine the challenges of observing such motions of small bodies more than 3 billion miles away!
Get the book, keep it close, and we will all get ready for New Horizons to finally give us a close up view of this fantastic planet and moon

I truely enjoyed reading Pluto and Charon. I found the subject matter quite accessible. i enjoyed learning about the process of discovery surrounding Pluto. I learned to love Pluto as a result of this book, and I highly recommend it.

The reviewer below - An.McCracken - is a fake. He reviews countless books each day but he does not read the books, just paraphrases other people's reviews. REPORT THIS TO AMAZON. Click on (Report this) link under the review, next to the voting buttons.

This was a wonderful book. It was absolutely amazing. The report I used this book to do I got an A 100% +75 bonus points! It was very entertaning. I would give it more stars if I could.