One has to feel sorry for the planet Pluto.

One has to feel sorry for the planet Pluto. As if being named after the overlord of hell were not bad enough, Pluto dwells in cold and darkness at the tar outer edge of the solar system, and is the only planet not yet visited by a space probe. Even the distinction of being incontrovertibly the outermost of the planets is not vouchsafed to Pluto: Because of its extremely eccentric orbit, for 20 years of its sluggish 248-year circuit it is closer to the sun than Neptune is. To add to the indignities, Pluto's status as a true planet has recently been disputed. (This magazine strongly supports continued inclusion of Pluto in the list of planets on the stare decisis principle.) Things may be looking up for this loneliest of our solar companions, though. In January NASA will launch the New Horizons space probe, intended to rendezvous with Pluto in 2015. Nor is Pluto's solitude as unrelieved as was once thought. The Hubble space telescope has recently detected two new moons orbiting the planet, for a total of three. What a tribute to the endlessly questing, insatiably curious spirit of our civilization that we can use our clever gadgets to peer even into Plutonian darkness!