November 25, 2005

Pluto or Bust

By RICHARD MONASTERSKY

Scientists prepare to get up close and personal with the last (perhaps) planet

If planets had personalities, Pluto would have developed an acute inferiority complex by now. The runt of the solar system's litter, Pluto was the last planet to be discovered, and it has never quite lived up to expectations. When astronomers first spotted the distant world in 1930, they figured that it was comparable to Earth in size, a view that held sway with only slight modifications until the

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