How I Killed Pluto Book Review
While my book "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming" won't arrive in the mail until Monday (Grrr ABE Books), I still wanted to write a review of the summary, the prologue, which I managed to find online, and why I chose this book. How I Killed Pluto is written by Mike Brown an astronomer born in Alabama who later moved out to California for his educational and professional career. In his memoir he discusses his findings and how that eventually led to the "death" of Pluto actually being considered a planet. Throughout the book he mixes in stories about his personal life with his wife and daughter and how they connect to professional career as an astronomer.
After reading the prologue online, I'm already happy and excited to have chosen this book and be able to read the rest of it. The prologue begins with Brown waking up extremely early in the morning to listen in on the International Astronomical Union meeting that was being held in Prague. One of the items on the agenda was to vote on whether Pluto would remain a planet or not. While the vote ended in a resounding "no", Brown discusses how the death of Pluto also simultaneously signaled the death of Xena, another celestial body that he had discovered in our solar system. Xena was closely connected to his daughter who had only been 3 weeks old when it was officially discovered and named.
I decided to choose this book because I have always been interested in the sciences and specifically astronomy. In high school I took an astronomy class and had loved learning about the oddities and new findings in the astronomical world. I also specifically remember being both upset and confused when I found out that Pluto was no longer considered a planet. As a child, it didn't make sense that something could be revoked of the title as a planet. What changed? Wasn't Pluto still there doing the exact same thing that it had been for millions of years? I never really got the answers I was looking for, so with this book I will hopefully end my confusing about Pluto and it's weird history as a "Planet."
After reading the prologue online, I'm already happy and excited to have chosen this book and be able to read the rest of it. The prologue begins with Brown waking up extremely early in the morning to listen in on the International Astronomical Union meeting that was being held in Prague. One of the items on the agenda was to vote on whether Pluto would remain a planet or not. While the vote ended in a resounding "no", Brown discusses how the death of Pluto also simultaneously signaled the death of Xena, another celestial body that he had discovered in our solar system. Xena was closely connected to his daughter who had only been 3 weeks old when it was officially discovered and named.
I decided to choose this book because I have always been interested in the sciences and specifically astronomy. In high school I took an astronomy class and had loved learning about the oddities and new findings in the astronomical world. I also specifically remember being both upset and confused when I found out that Pluto was no longer considered a planet. As a child, it didn't make sense that something could be revoked of the title as a planet. What changed? Wasn't Pluto still there doing the exact same thing that it had been for millions of years? I never really got the answers I was looking for, so with this book I will hopefully end my confusing about Pluto and it's weird history as a "Planet."
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