The post-9/11 world has been hard on Pluto, which was knocked off its throne as the outermost planet and demoted to "dwarf planet" status. But if you are the asteroid Ceres, it was the best of times. Now you too can proudly call yourself a "dwarf planet," a step up from being a big rock in the asteroid belt.
In The New Solar System, science writer Patricia Daniels states with good humor that while the solar system may be 4.5 billion years old, "paradoxically it undergoes a renewal once or twice a century." Or maybe more often, as becomes apparent as you burrow into this brightly illustrated compendium of astronomical history and current knowledge. Hypotheses come and go. Definitions shift. Ice and high-altitude snow have been seen on Mars, along with dry riverbeds, but extraterrestrial life remains as elusive as the Loch Ness monster.
In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Space probes and giant telescopes keep pushing the human eye further from home, uncovering a universe richer in wonder than anyone but a science-fiction writer could have imagined even 50 years ago.
