But this carefully orchestrated space ballet will permanently change the face of Pluto. The dwarf planet will transform from a pixelated blur into a sharp image of rock and ice. Along with this photographic face-lift, Pluto will finally come into focus scientifically, as Christopher Crockett describes. The mission to this remote outpost on the edge of the familiar part of our solar system will help answer questions about why Pluto’s atmosphere is drifting off into space and whether it’s home to ice volcanoes. It will also start to fill in the picture of what’s beyond Pluto’s orbit — the sea of icy objects that make up the Kuiper belt. This dim population of planetary leftovers circles the sun in a far region that’s still largely unexplored.