The Hunt for Planet X Authors: Govert Schilling Publisher: Copernicus Books ISBN: 9780387778044 Price: £15 (Hb), 303pp
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In 2006, the IAU conference in Prague that sealed the fate of Pluto failed miserably to educate the public as to the nature of planets and dwarf planets. Govert Schilling's new book cuts  hrough the confusion like a knife to tell the story of the Solar System's outermost bodies.

The Hunt for Planet X may sound like a speculative title, but it is the never-ending quest for this mythical world that has resulted in the discoveries of Pluto, Chiron, Eris, Sedna, the Kuiper Belt and all the icy objects within it. Schilling, an experienced astronomy journalist who many of you will have heard talk at AstroFest 2009 in February, expertly weaves the tale, from the discovery of Uranus, the first world to be found since ancient times, through to the discovery of the asteroids, Percival Lowell's quest for 'Planet X' that directly led to Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto, theories on the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, and finally modern discoveries of actual Kuiper Belt objects, including the familiar stories of the discoveries of the likes of Eris and Sedna.

Some of the chapters that I found most delightful were those telling the stories of objects such as Chiron and Charon, the details of which I was less familiar with than more modern discoveries. The saga and controversy of Eris' discovery, ending in that farcical IAU conference in Prague, also make for enthralling reading. Schilling takes time to really emphasise that the search for 'Planet X' is a very human story - the personalities, arguments, disappointments and triumphs of the astronomers involved are central to the story, humanising what could have otherwise have been a dry science book. But don't let that mislead you into thinking there isn't any science here
- readers will come away with a thorough knowledge of the denizens of the Kuiper Belt. And it is the first astronomy book I've ever read that references Inspector Morse!

Accessible to beginners, friendly to non-scientists and rewarding to those with an astronomical background, if there is one book that you read about the outer reaches of the Solar System, make sure it is this one.

Keith Cooper