Despite our growing understanding of Pluto and its moon Charon, there have not been any books written on them since 1981, when Clyde Tombaugh's book was published in honor of the 50th anniversary of Pluto's discovery. This book now tells the story of the most distant planet of the solar system and its moon.

For this second edition, Stern and Mitton have brought their 1998 book fully up to date, including the latest discoveries about Pluto's ancient relationship with the members of the Kuiper Belt of icy bodies and dwarf planets beyond Neptune. They have also added a completely new chapter on the New Horizons mission.

Preface to the Second Edition.Preface to the First Edition.Prologue: Encounter!1. New Frontier.A Planet Hunt."Young Man, I Am Afraid You Are Wasting Your Time.""That's It!"But What to Call It?Pathways of the Gods.Empty of Empties.It's a Rogue!2. First Facts.The Dark Ages.Shimmer, Little Planet.The Pulse of a Planet's Brightness.A Cockeyed World.Reading the Rainbow.Pluto's Own Signature.A Rose, By Any Other Name.Fellow Traveler.Harvest: 1978.3. A Distant Dance.The Gift of a Swede.The Dance, Dissected.Searching for Shadows.Tally Ho Shadow!Glimpsing the Treasure Trove.When Seconds Equal Centimeters: Measuring Pluto's Size.Bounty.He and She.The Face of Pluto.4. The Importance of Snow.The Low Roads.A Clean Machine: The Road Less Trveled.The High Road, At Last.Mining the Occulation Data.Smoke? Or Mirrors?Taking Pluto's Temperature.Something So Familiar.Hot Spots on a Cold World.The Fate of Pluto's Atmosphere: Future Tense.5. Building a Binary Planet.A Grand Design.Before.Building Planets from Plantetesimals.Winds of Change.Mother Violence.A Misfit's Role.The Faint Smell of a Fish.Big Bangs.Lost Flock.6. Ice Fields and Ice Dwarfs.Where Have All the Pluto's Gone?The Edge.The Hunters.Enter Smiley.Pluto's Kin.Meet the Plutinos.The Meaning of Missing Mass.Hindsight 20/20: Lo, the Misfit Fits.7. Everest.Cradle Vista.An Ornament Against the Deep.On Being There.A Gathering, a Start.Manna, From Triton.First Ascent.Tick, Tick, Tick.Onward, Upward.Form and Function Combined.Some Trouble with the Ticket.Expresso.8. New Horizons.A Final Faltering.We Are the Undead.A Reincarnation.The Undead Never Blink.New Horizons, Indeed.Light My Fire.9. Where No One Has Gone Before.Then I Saw Her Face.Appendix: A Chronology of Major Events in the Exploration of Pluto.Notes.Index.