''How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming'' is the 2010 memoir by
Mike Brown, the American
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
most responsible for the
reclassification of
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
from
planet
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
to
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to p ...
.
Summary
The memoir is an account of the events surrounding the
redefinition of the term ''planet'' that eventually changed the status of Pluto. It chronicles the discovery of
Eris, a dwarf planet then mistakenly thought to be larger than Pluto, located within the
scattered disc
The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy small solar system bodies, which are a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc objec ...
, beyond Neptune's orbit. The replaying of events includes the adversarial challenging of long-held scientific beliefs between some of the world's leading astronomers, and the eventual 2006
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
's vote that removed Pluto from the list of
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
planets.
Reviews
Reviews of the book have been generally positive, with James Kennedy of ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' calling the book a "brisk" and "enjoyable ... chronicle" of the tale of the search for new planets and the eventual demotion of Pluto from planetary status.
Janet Maslin of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called it a "short, eager-to-please research memoir".
See also
*
List of former planets
This is a list of astronomical objects formerly widely considered ''planets'' under any of the various definitions of this word in the history of astronomy. As the definition of ''planet'' has evolved, the de facto and de jure definitions of plane ...
References
Bibliography
* {{cite book
, title = How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
, first = Michael E.
, last = Brown
, date = 2010
, isbn = 978-0-385-53108-5
, url = https://archive.org/details/howikilledplutow00mike
2010 non-fiction books
Astronomy books
Pluto's planethood
American memoirs
Michael E. Brown