Chasing Pluto

Gr 5-7-Breathless narration and bursts of orchestral music crank up the drama in this documentary account of the probe New Horizons' ongoing mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt beyond. Aside from a brief software glitch en route, the mission has so far gone off without a hitch. Much of the suspense is thus manufactured-at least in retrospect. Still, the rapidly paced mix of tense moments in the NASA control room, talking heads excitedly delivering sound bites, and speculative portraits of the distant planet that give way to actual photos make for absorbing viewing. Along with glimpses of New Horizons being assembled and launched (in 2006), each of the probe's instruments gets a brief description, as does the probe's long trajectory across much of the solar system and Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet. Charon and the other Plutonic moons, as well as more distant Kuiper Belt objects in the mission's profile, receive barely a mention, though, and since the climactic flyby occurred in July 2015, this video is already somewhat out of date. VERDICT A good overview of our latest milestone in space exploration, though not a required addition except where long-term media collection is a priority.-John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.