Pluto Explored! NASA's Epic Voyage to the Edge of the Solar System
Professor William B. McKinnon, Washington University in St. Louis
We have reached Pluto, the last of the classical planets, and the most remote world yet explored by humankind! Far from being dark, cold, and dead, Pluto and its family of moons are bright and variegated, if not gloriously, geologically alive. From giant floating mountains of water ice, to mysterious cryovolcanoes, to valleys carved by now vanished glaciers of solid nitrogen, to towering blades of sun-burnt solid methane, Pluto has expanded the very meaning of geology, and the definition of planethood. And while modest in stature, Pluto has played a key role in revolutionizing our understanding of the early history of the Solar System.