How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is the 2010 memoir by Mike Brown, the American astronomer most responsible for the reclassification of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet.[1][2]
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Author | Michael E. Brown |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Publication date | 2010 |
ISBN | 0-385-53108-7 |
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, 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's vote that removed Pluto from the list of Solar System planets.[1]
Reviews of the book have been generally positive, with James Kennedy of The Wall Street Journal 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.[3] Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it a "short, eager-to-please research memoir".[4]