How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Thanks to Mike Brown, two of my childhood illusions have been shattered: Pluto is no longer a planet, and Astronomy isn't a riveting, exciting science as I thought it would be.
Mike Brown is a CalTech astronomer who has been looking for objects past Pluto and found over a dozen of them. That's where the problem lies. Most of objects are half the size of Pluto, and Eris is about 25% bigger than Pluto. So it stands to reason that either Eris is our new 10th planet in the solar system, or since it behaves a bit strangely like Pluto, then Pluto isn't a planet (since it moves in an irregular orbit, etc.) The logic makes sense, and Dr. Brown explains it from both sides and fully understands that growing up, all of us learned that Pluto was a planet, and that changing that would result in uproar. He's fair and balanced in his logic and reasoning and explains it very well.
Dr. Brown doesn't romance the life of the astronomer: they work odd hours, have to deal with weather, the moon, long hours poured over maps and plates to determine if objects move or not. They're obsessive creatures with understanding spouses (Dr. Brown mentions his spouse a lot, who sounds like a great person and adds "Astronomy wives" to the long list of suffering spouses who deal with a spouse with a crazy profession.)
There's an interesting background to what it means to actually discover something. I didn't know that there was a proper naming nomenclature behind finding objects. Giving Eris the original name of Xena (after the "Warrior Princess" TV show) lead to vigorous discussion. If it was a Kuiper belt object, then it should be named after a creation deity. This is something that not many people are aware of, and they got bent out of shape when Brown and his group deviated from it, even with nicknames.
The writing is strong. Sometimes with books written by scientists, the narrative tends to get in the way of the science. I hope that this isn't Dr. Brown's last book, because I could see him writing more books on astronomy for wider audiences.
Overall, I'd recommend this book for people with an interest in astronomy and anyone who has an interest in why Pluto isn't a planet any longer. It's a good read for anyone who's ever dreamed beyond the planet.

Click Here to see more reviews about: How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming

Click here for more information about How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming