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


Series
Scientists in the Field

by
Mary Kay Carson
photographed by
Tom Uhlman

Edition
Hardcover edition
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Imprint
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN
9780544416710
POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
None
$6.00   $5.00
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QTY
Out of stock

JLG Category

Nonfiction Middle

Follow along with scientists as they build the first spacecraft to explore Pluto, fly it across the solar system, and make new discoveries three billion miles away. Time line. Glossary. List of resources for more information. Author's note. Sources and selected bibliography. Index. Full-color and black-and-white photographs, reproductions, diagrams, and digital illustrations.

POTENTIALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
None

Details

Format

Print

Page Count

80

Trim Size

11" x 9"

Dewey

629.43/54922

AR

6.3: points 2

Lexile

940L

Genre

Nonfic

Scholastic Reading Counts

6

JLG Release

Mar 2017

Book Genres


Topics

New Horizons (spacecraft). Space flight. Interplanetary voyages. Pluto (dwarf planet). Kuiper Belt. Space exploration.

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Praise & Reviews

Starred or favorable reviews have been received from these periodicals:

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Booklist, The Horn Book Magazine, Kirkus Reviews*, Publishers Weekly

Horn Book

In 2015, after nine years in transit from Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft successfully flew past the dwarf planet Pluto. The data sent back—including amazingly crisp images of never-before-seen surface details—has opened a new window onto the science of the outer solar system. Carson’s description of the mission, crafted from firsthand accounts and images provided by members of the scientific team, takes readers through the decades-long process of getting a multi-milliondollar NASA mission funded, built, and launched—at times in spite of politics, budget cuts, and waxing and waning public interest in space. The technical details are fascinating, since the engineering constraints for getting a light, fast, cheap machine all the way to Pluto were daunting. Equally astonishing are the scientific advances that occurred during this period: four new moons of Pluto were discovered (two in 2005 and two in 2012), and it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Carson augments this account with facts about Pluto and the solar system, the schematics of the spacecraft, and the history of Pluto’s discovery by an amateur astronomer. The emotional moment when the first New Horizons data arrived—which Carson and Uhlman witnessed—is captured in the photographs included throughout the book. This data included new information about Pluto’s composition, topography, age, and even possible recent geologic activity. The mission isn’t over yet: readers can check out the appended websites to follow New Horizons into the Kuiper Belt . . . and perhaps beyond. danielle j. ford

Praise & Reviews

Horn Book

In 2015, after nine years in transit from Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft successfully flew past the dwarf planet Pluto. The data sent back—including amazingly crisp images of never-before-seen surface details—has opened a new window onto the science of the outer solar system. Carson’s description of the mission, crafted from firsthand accounts and images provided by members of the scientific team, takes readers through the decades-long process of getting a multi-milliondollar NASA mission funded, built, and launched—at times in spite of politics, budget cuts, and waxing and waning public interest in space. The technical details are fascinating, since the engineering constraints for getting a light, fast, cheap machine all the way to Pluto were daunting. Equally astonishing are the scientific advances that occurred during this period: four new moons of Pluto were discovered (two in 2005 and two in 2012), and it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Carson augments this account with facts about Pluto and the solar system, the schematics of the spacecraft, and the history of Pluto’s discovery by an amateur astronomer. The emotional moment when the first New Horizons data arrived—which Carson and Uhlman witnessed—is captured in the photographs included throughout the book. This data included new information about Pluto’s composition, topography, age, and even possible recent geologic activity. The mission isn’t over yet: readers can check out the appended websites to follow New Horizons into the Kuiper Belt . . . and perhaps beyond. danielle j. ford

Grades 5-8
Nonfiction Middle
For Grades 5-8

Knowledge is power, and no other category speaks to this more. The 12 books in this category range from autobiographies to anthropological studies, these nonfiction titles are just right for middle-school readers . . . and ideal for research and classroom support, too.

12 books per Year
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Interests
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