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The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet
The New York Times “You gotta read this. It is the most exciting book about Pluto you will ever read in your life.”—Jon Stewart When the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on page one, “Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York.” Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were choosing sides over Pluto’s planethood. Pluto is entrenched in our cultural and emotional view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Rose Center, is on a quest to discover why. He stood at the heart of the controversy over Pluto’s demotion, and, consequently, plutophiles have freely shared their opinions with him, including endless hate mail from third-graders. color throughout
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 19, 2008
About the author
Neil deGrasse Tyson
84 books284k followersNeil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.
In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a twelve-member commission that studied the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.
In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a nine-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which guides NASA through its perennial need to fit ambitious visions into restricted budgets.
In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host. The program premiered in September 2004.
Two of Tyson’s other books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto’s planetary status. The PBS NOVA documentary The Pluto Files, based on the book, premiered in March 2010.
In February 2012, Tyson released his tenth book, containing every thought he has ever had on the past, present, and future of space exploration: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.
During the summer of 2009 Tyson identified a cadre of professional standup comedians to assist his effort in bringing science to commercial radio with the NSF-funded pilot program StarTalk. Now also a popular Podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run Television Series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.
Tyson is the recipient of twenty-one honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid “13123 Tyson.” And by zoologists, with the naming of Indirani Tysoni, a native species of leaping frog in India. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by People Magazine in 2000.
More recently, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry in 2017, which was a domestic and international bestseller. This adorably readable book is an introduction to all that you’ve read and heard about that’s making news in the universe—consummated, in one plac
In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a twelve-member commission that studied the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.
In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a nine-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which guides NASA through its perennial need to fit ambitious visions into restricted budgets.
In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host. The program premiered in September 2004.
Two of Tyson’s other books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto’s planetary status. The PBS NOVA documentary The Pluto Files, based on the book, premiered in March 2010.
In February 2012, Tyson released his tenth book, containing every thought he has ever had on the past, present, and future of space exploration: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.
During the summer of 2009 Tyson identified a cadre of professional standup comedians to assist his effort in bringing science to commercial radio with the NSF-funded pilot program StarTalk. Now also a popular Podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run Television Series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.
Tyson is the recipient of twenty-one honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid “13123 Tyson.” And by zoologists, with the naming of Indirani Tysoni, a native species of leaping frog in India. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by People Magazine in 2000.
More recently, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry in 2017, which was a domestic and international bestseller. This adorably readable book is an introduction to all that you’ve read and heard about that’s making news in the universe—consummated, in one plac
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 725 reviews
April 6, 2017
Like all of Tyson's books, it's very well written, explaining any number of difficult subjects with clarity and ease, but unfortunately, with this subject, we devolve into a catalogue of cultural significance for the poor demoted Pluto and a very long list of rather humorous emails and letters all sent to Tyson because of his role in the decision.
If that's what you're looking for, then, by all means, enjoy this book!
But if you're looking for an in-depth rather than an adequate focus on Pluto rather than our cultural reactions to the planet, then perhaps you should look elsewhere.
I'm not saying this book wasn't fun... and the politics of science and all those pooooooor schoolchildren writing Tyson was both humorous and slightly off-putting at the same time... but it wasn't so much about science as it was about justifying (rightly so, in my opinion,) the need to pluto Pluto. RIP.
Or rather... go play with your new Kuiper buddies. ;)
If that's what you're looking for, then, by all means, enjoy this book!
But if you're looking for an in-depth rather than an adequate focus on Pluto rather than our cultural reactions to the planet, then perhaps you should look elsewhere.
I'm not saying this book wasn't fun... and the politics of science and all those pooooooor schoolchildren writing Tyson was both humorous and slightly off-putting at the same time... but it wasn't so much about science as it was about justifying (rightly so, in my opinion,) the need to pluto Pluto. RIP.
Or rather... go play with your new Kuiper buddies. ;)
April 8, 2017
I wanted to read something by Neil deGrasse Tyson for a long time. I like how he can break complex matters up and present them in a way that children and laymen can understand them (there is a famous quote saying that you yourself have only understood a matter if you're capable of explaining it in simple terms).
This is probably the lightest of books by this author and people should know that going it. It's "only" about Pluto and that whole mess after it got declassified from "planet" to "dwarf planet".
Seriously though?! I don't know what the problem is. In fact, I didn't even know about all the controversy and the backlash until I saw an interview about three weeks ago in which deGrasse Tyson made jokes about it! Sure, the declassification itself was on the news here as well, but it was backed with scientific reasons so nobody had a real problem with it. It just meant that the old mnemonic rhyme didn't work anymore. It's the way of science: it's not infallible and theories/classifications/procedures have to be adapted or even abandoned, deal with it! *shrugs*
In the US, however, people apparently lost their shit and had to exaggerate again.
Thus, this book is full of letters the author received from school children to their teachers and other adults, of articles and other stuff in which deGrasse Tyson was blamed and even downright attacked (almost treated as if he had killed Pluto, in fact). It also contains a lot of cartoons from around the time the declassification took place. One of them is a real gem:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
However, the book is not only about pop culture and social backlash, it's also about Pluto's history and some scientific background about the dwarf planet, though I have to admit that the history and science could have been a little more dominant.
Overall, it's a funny book (yes, I'm laughing at other people's stupidity, sue me) that has a nice design and is easy and fast to read. Nothing like a real science book but that is also neither its purpose nor what it was advertised as.
This is probably the lightest of books by this author and people should know that going it. It's "only" about Pluto and that whole mess after it got declassified from "planet" to "dwarf planet".
Seriously though?! I don't know what the problem is. In fact, I didn't even know about all the controversy and the backlash until I saw an interview about three weeks ago in which deGrasse Tyson made jokes about it! Sure, the declassification itself was on the news here as well, but it was backed with scientific reasons so nobody had a real problem with it. It just meant that the old mnemonic rhyme didn't work anymore. It's the way of science: it's not infallible and theories/classifications/procedures have to be adapted or even abandoned, deal with it! *shrugs*
In the US, however, people apparently lost their shit and had to exaggerate again.
Thus, this book is full of letters the author received from school children to their teachers and other adults, of articles and other stuff in which deGrasse Tyson was blamed and even downright attacked (almost treated as if he had killed Pluto, in fact). It also contains a lot of cartoons from around the time the declassification took place. One of them is a real gem:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
However, the book is not only about pop culture and social backlash, it's also about Pluto's history and some scientific background about the dwarf planet, though I have to admit that the history and science could have been a little more dominant.
Overall, it's a funny book (yes, I'm laughing at other people's stupidity, sue me) that has a nice design and is easy and fast to read. Nothing like a real science book but that is also neither its purpose nor what it was advertised as.
August 28, 2021
Pluto gets around. It has been a planet, a dwarf planet, a minor planet, a planetoid, a “non-planet,” a comet, an asteroid, an ice ball, a Greek god, an underdog, a cartoon dog, and a laxative. Smaller than our moon, and six other moons in this solar system, Pluto (the celestial body, not the laxative) is a veritable David in a solar system of Goliaths.
Way back in 1970, my second grade teacher, Mrs. Mordecai, introduced me to mnemonics. My favorite was always, “My very excellent mother just served us new potatoes,” which correlates to the (then) nine planets in positional order.
My - Mercury
Very - Venus
Excellent - Earth
Mother - Mars
Just - Jupiter
Served - Saturn
Us - Uranus
New - Neptune
Potatoes - Pluto
Cancel Culture (or “How my very excellent mother just served us nothing…”)
plan·et /ˈplanət/ noun: a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.
That definition, thank you Oxford, was far too broad for any discerning astrophysicist looking to disqualify asteroids (such as Ceres), comets (such as Hale-Bopp), and neptunian bodies (such as 2000 EB173), from full fledged planethood. Thus, in 2006, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) convened a general assembly specifically to define, with as much precision as possible, what a “planet” actually is. After much debate, the definition they agreed on is thus:
“a PLANET is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around a star, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
Because Pluto basically resides in a debris field known as “Kuiper belt,” it by no means meets the ‘cleared orbit’ criteria. Bye-bye planethood.
Let’s be real. Pluto’s reassignment (a.k.a. demotion) was the right thing to do. It’s not even the largest known object in the Kuiper belt (see: Eris). If we allow Pluto membership in the planet club then there are definitely other contenders that would be equally qualified. And what seven year old kid wants to memorize a twenty eight word mnemonic? Screw that!
I read books on astronomy because it fascinates me and I want to know more about it. I specifically read books on astronomy authored by Neil deGrasse Tyson because it fascinates me and I want to know more about it AND I want to have fun doing it. Neil makes it fun.
Way back in 1970, my second grade teacher, Mrs. Mordecai, introduced me to mnemonics. My favorite was always, “My very excellent mother just served us new potatoes,” which correlates to the (then) nine planets in positional order.
My - Mercury
Very - Venus
Excellent - Earth
Mother - Mars
Just - Jupiter
Served - Saturn
Us - Uranus
New - Neptune
Potatoes - Pluto
Cancel Culture (or “How my very excellent mother just served us nothing…”)
plan·et /ˈplanət/ noun: a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.
That definition, thank you Oxford, was far too broad for any discerning astrophysicist looking to disqualify asteroids (such as Ceres), comets (such as Hale-Bopp), and neptunian bodies (such as 2000 EB173), from full fledged planethood. Thus, in 2006, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) convened a general assembly specifically to define, with as much precision as possible, what a “planet” actually is. After much debate, the definition they agreed on is thus:
“a PLANET is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around a star, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
Because Pluto basically resides in a debris field known as “Kuiper belt,” it by no means meets the ‘cleared orbit’ criteria. Bye-bye planethood.
Let’s be real. Pluto’s reassignment (a.k.a. demotion) was the right thing to do. It’s not even the largest known object in the Kuiper belt (see: Eris). If we allow Pluto membership in the planet club then there are definitely other contenders that would be equally qualified. And what seven year old kid wants to memorize a twenty eight word mnemonic? Screw that!
I read books on astronomy because it fascinates me and I want to know more about it. I specifically read books on astronomy authored by Neil deGrasse Tyson because it fascinates me and I want to know more about it AND I want to have fun doing it. Neil makes it fun.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2016
Here's a topic that isn't often covered: how museums design their exhibits. You know what else isn't often covered: how science happens. There are myriad books about discoverers and discoveries, and many about new fields as they develop. But this is the only time I can recall reading a book on the evolving science behind an issue like Is Pluto a planet? And although the book isn't specifically targeting a young readership, I think it could be wonderfully popular with middle school readers, because 1) Neil deGrasse Tyson is amusing 2) he is very good at explaining things, and 3) students are featured commentators.
I'm not going to try to summarize the book, because it's a quick read, and highly enjoyable, and is itself a summary of more than a hundred years of astronomy. I loved it, as did my middle-school child who wants to design robots for NASA one day.
Word of warning, though: don't read the absurdly long photo captions if you're actually reading the text.
Library copy
I'm not going to try to summarize the book, because it's a quick read, and highly enjoyable, and is itself a summary of more than a hundred years of astronomy. I loved it, as did my middle-school child who wants to design robots for NASA one day.
Word of warning, though: don't read the absurdly long photo captions if you're actually reading the text.
Library copy
May 18, 2017
I admit I did not thoroughly read this. I am not a science person at all (Yes, I realize I appear to be Asian). Most of the information went over my head. I recognize that Tyson is not only one of the foremost scientists today, but also one of the more easily understood ones. I suppose I am that dense when it comes to the hard sciences. Give me psychology, sociology, philosophy, I would stun you with my brain. Start giving me numbers and symbols, the solar system, energy, elements, gravity, I will fade into the background. It is saying something, then, that at least the vague themes discussed were not lost on me. Maybe one day I will invest a lot more time and effort into studying this, but until then the magnificent illustrations and Tyson's picture with Pluto the Dog made my day.
May 31, 2014
deGrasse Tyson proves that while he might not be the smartest man in the United States, he is one of the best scientist at making what at first glance could be a daunting project for the uninitiated to read both understandable and enjoyable. With this the second of this Astrophysicists books and it has determined me to read anything that I can find under his pen. His delivery makes it easy to read some of the most complex subjects in a clear and easy to read manner.
While this book is about the discussion/argument on whether or not Pluto is a planet. It also brings out the more important and for my own part the lack of solid definition of what a planet is. While the emotion seems to be centered on Pluto, which I must admit if I was ever asked would probably have been listed as my favorite planet, and since it is now called a Dwarf Planet, could still be that. This bias is only due to reading a book on the search for Planet X when I was in Grade School. This book also touches on what to define the other occupants of our Solar System. Since Jupiter is so obviously different from Earth a change of nomenclature certainly wouldn't be out of hand.
While the author stated early on that he was in favor of demoting Pluto from a planet, he doesn't present a one sided discussion of the case and, with a few exceptions, presents those on both sides of the argument with an even hand. The descriptions of some of the emails and letters he received in the process of this debate go a long way to adding a sense of the unreal as well as a great deal of humor on the subject.
All in all, whether you care if Pluto is a planet or not, this is a fun read. I recommend it highly.
While this book is about the discussion/argument on whether or not Pluto is a planet. It also brings out the more important and for my own part the lack of solid definition of what a planet is. While the emotion seems to be centered on Pluto, which I must admit if I was ever asked would probably have been listed as my favorite planet, and since it is now called a Dwarf Planet, could still be that. This bias is only due to reading a book on the search for Planet X when I was in Grade School. This book also touches on what to define the other occupants of our Solar System. Since Jupiter is so obviously different from Earth a change of nomenclature certainly wouldn't be out of hand.
While the author stated early on that he was in favor of demoting Pluto from a planet, he doesn't present a one sided discussion of the case and, with a few exceptions, presents those on both sides of the argument with an even hand. The descriptions of some of the emails and letters he received in the process of this debate go a long way to adding a sense of the unreal as well as a great deal of humor on the subject.
All in all, whether you care if Pluto is a planet or not, this is a fun read. I recommend it highly.
January 27, 2018
Everything that you could ever want to know about Pluto. I think it may be an effective teaching aid if teachers used excepts in their lessons.
February 28, 2009
Another guilty pleasure. Neil deGrasse Tyson always writes well. This time he is less concerned with science education than he is with describing the shared cultural mania that resulted from rebranding Pluto a plutoid.
The story begins with the fallout of the exhibit he put together at the Hayden Planetarium in the new Rose Center for Earth and Space. His team presented the planets as members of families of object with similar properties rather than as orbs to be memorized. Pluto was firmly placed amongst the Kuiper Belt objects.
This exhibit launched a rancorous debate on whether Pluto should be designated as a planet or something else after a headline in the New York Times read: "Pluto's Not a Planet? Only in New York". Surprisingly the public took sides in the debate and he received hate mail about his contribution to the discussion from elementary school children and others around the world. He reports that he was "branded a public enemy of Pluto lovers the world over".
It is a very entertaining read and laugh-out-loud funny in spots. He describes the history and discovery of Pluto, what is known about the planet itself, and he describes the viewpoints of the various sides in the scientific and cultural debate quite well. He quotes headlines, comics, and cites other sources that illustrates the zeitgeist surrounding the demotion of Pluto.
My favorite bit comes toward the end of the book:
I cannot see reading the book again. It's really not the sort of book you plan to go back to, but I don't regret a minute of the enjoyable time I spent with it.
The story begins with the fallout of the exhibit he put together at the Hayden Planetarium in the new Rose Center for Earth and Space. His team presented the planets as members of families of object with similar properties rather than as orbs to be memorized. Pluto was firmly placed amongst the Kuiper Belt objects.
This exhibit launched a rancorous debate on whether Pluto should be designated as a planet or something else after a headline in the New York Times read: "Pluto's Not a Planet? Only in New York". Surprisingly the public took sides in the debate and he received hate mail about his contribution to the discussion from elementary school children and others around the world. He reports that he was "branded a public enemy of Pluto lovers the world over".
It is a very entertaining read and laugh-out-loud funny in spots. He describes the history and discovery of Pluto, what is known about the planet itself, and he describes the viewpoints of the various sides in the scientific and cultural debate quite well. He quotes headlines, comics, and cites other sources that illustrates the zeitgeist surrounding the demotion of Pluto.
My favorite bit comes toward the end of the book:
"Meanwhile, those people in society who would credit or blame the cosmos, and not themselves, for their financial affairs and love life were split on what impact an official statement to demote Pluto would have on their horoscope casting. The day after the IAU vote, a story in the Wall Street Journal by Jane Spencer appeared, under the title “Pluto’s Demotion Divides Astrologers.” The widely reprinted article cites the American Federation of Astrologers and the Astrological Association of Great Britain as standing firmly by Pluto, asserting that the icy orb is a full-blown planet, maintaining a powerful pull on our psyche, despite the IAU vote to the contrary. Then comes my favorite line:
"'Whether he’s a planet, an asteroid, or a radioactive matzo ball, Pluto has proven himself worthy of a permanent place in all horoscopes,' says Shelley Ackerman, columnist for the spirituality Web site Beliefnet.com.
"The article goes on to quote Ms. Ackerman criticizing the IAU for not including astrologers in its decision. It further quotes Eric Francis, of Planetwaves.net, which represents a subgroup of these medieval prognosticators known as minor-planet astrologers: 'This is a moment that I’ve been waiting for for a long time,' Francis remarks as he welcomes Ceres, Eris, and Charon to the ranks of dwarf planets, granting horoscope charts extra ways for believers to cede control of their lives to the universe."
I cannot see reading the book again. It's really not the sort of book you plan to go back to, but I don't regret a minute of the enjoyable time I spent with it.
August 31, 2019
deGrasse Tyson’s job is to explain things to the masses. To this extent his work is, by design, somewhat fluff and superficial. There is nothing wrong if that is you purpose. He has a fun personality that comes across in his writing.
That being said:
While defending the IAU’s vote, he wrote:
On “the surface, this argument sounds convincing, but most pollsters would give their eyeteeth for their sample to represent 4 percent of a complete population. So the question should be, What are the chances that the vote would be substantially different if you polled all the world’s astrophysicists? It turns out, if you do the math, that the votes margin of uncertainty is less than 3 percent […] The calculation assumes that the 424 scientist are a random sample. There is no reason to presume otherwise, except that people who favor Pluto’s planethood typically exhibit more energy for their cause than Pluto demoters exhibit for theirs.”
Sorry. The people who attend the IAU’s international conference are NOT random nor a statistically valid representative. The people who attend that conference are most likely:
1) from the larger more prestigious universities, planetariums, and organizations. The organizations that can afford to send their representatives to an international conference (or pay them enough that they can afford to go on their own).
2) The higher ranking more experienced members of these universities, planetariums, and organizations.
3) Mostly from Europe as the conference was help in Prague. (Professional conventions will have a disproportionate number of people who are local vs from other contries/continents.)
These factors are not “random”. To state that “there is no reason to presume” that it isn’t a statistically valid sample displays an appalling lack of understanding of statistics, a blatant attempt to mislead, or an insult to his audience.
A much more convincing argument would be that the people who attended the conference are the leaders in their field at the leading astronomical institutions and that the IAU is the organization responsible for defining astronomical nomenclature. Nor would have I have a problem with the notion that a 90% margin from the “vote” really represents a consensus, but that the “vote” was performed to help sell the idea to the public. But to pretend that the voting body was statistically valid? No.
That being said, this is simple read with some good information.
Still a fun book.
That being said:
While defending the IAU’s vote, he wrote:
On “the surface, this argument sounds convincing, but most pollsters would give their eyeteeth for their sample to represent 4 percent of a complete population. So the question should be, What are the chances that the vote would be substantially different if you polled all the world’s astrophysicists? It turns out, if you do the math, that the votes margin of uncertainty is less than 3 percent […] The calculation assumes that the 424 scientist are a random sample. There is no reason to presume otherwise, except that people who favor Pluto’s planethood typically exhibit more energy for their cause than Pluto demoters exhibit for theirs.”
Sorry. The people who attend the IAU’s international conference are NOT random nor a statistically valid representative. The people who attend that conference are most likely:
1) from the larger more prestigious universities, planetariums, and organizations. The organizations that can afford to send their representatives to an international conference (or pay them enough that they can afford to go on their own).
2) The higher ranking more experienced members of these universities, planetariums, and organizations.
3) Mostly from Europe as the conference was help in Prague. (Professional conventions will have a disproportionate number of people who are local vs from other contries/continents.)
These factors are not “random”. To state that “there is no reason to presume” that it isn’t a statistically valid sample displays an appalling lack of understanding of statistics, a blatant attempt to mislead, or an insult to his audience.
A much more convincing argument would be that the people who attended the conference are the leaders in their field at the leading astronomical institutions and that the IAU is the organization responsible for defining astronomical nomenclature. Nor would have I have a problem with the notion that a 90% margin from the “vote” really represents a consensus, but that the “vote” was performed to help sell the idea to the public. But to pretend that the voting body was statistically valid? No.
That being said, this is simple read with some good information.
Still a fun book.
February 21, 2009
Tyson is always a favorite guest on The Daily Show and this book was discussed on his last interview with Jon Stewart. Library to the rescue!
There are 9 chapters to this fairly short book, all done with wit and an obvious love of science. Tyson goes over Pluto's history, how Pluto was received in our culture, and the descent of how Pluto lost his status as our 9th planet.
Apparently Americans really love Pluto, not only because of it's association with Disney's dog, but because an American discovered Pluto back in 1930 by New Mexican Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year old farmboy. Tombaugh lived to his 90s to see how Pluto was about to be reclassified and fought it tooth and nail. Ergo, America discovered a planet and it shouldn't be taken away.
The trouble with planets is...a definition for planets was never ever set in stone. In the '00s, the International Astronomical Union began devising a concrete definition for a planet. In 2006, it was determined that Pluto did not meet the new definition - mostly because it didn't clear its own orbit of debris.
This is an excellent book that makes science a lot easier to understand and offsets the jargon with comical letters from outraged children. Tyson has an opinion at the end that suggests a new way of teaching kids about the solar system so that its not only planets that get their day in the sun...so to speak.
There are 9 chapters to this fairly short book, all done with wit and an obvious love of science. Tyson goes over Pluto's history, how Pluto was received in our culture, and the descent of how Pluto lost his status as our 9th planet.
Apparently Americans really love Pluto, not only because of it's association with Disney's dog, but because an American discovered Pluto back in 1930 by New Mexican Clyde Tombaugh, a 24 year old farmboy. Tombaugh lived to his 90s to see how Pluto was about to be reclassified and fought it tooth and nail. Ergo, America discovered a planet and it shouldn't be taken away.
The trouble with planets is...a definition for planets was never ever set in stone. In the '00s, the International Astronomical Union began devising a concrete definition for a planet. In 2006, it was determined that Pluto did not meet the new definition - mostly because it didn't clear its own orbit of debris.
This is an excellent book that makes science a lot easier to understand and offsets the jargon with comical letters from outraged children. Tyson has an opinion at the end that suggests a new way of teaching kids about the solar system so that its not only planets that get their day in the sun...so to speak.
May 4, 2015
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a very entertaining science communicator and astrophysicist. This little book outlines the whole Pluto debate as it unfolded in the US (I don't think most people in other countries cared quite so much). It makes for entertaining reading, but I can't help but think 'seriously? It's science. Science changes constantly. And frankly, all the debate concerns is a linguistically constructed classification system. The universe doesn't really care.' Still, it is a fun and very accessible read.
July 15, 2019
I was going to write a real review... but nah.
I like the little comics and the included letters. I liked the beginning enough, but as the book went on, it started to drag. Maybe it was because the book tried to be everything*, and it just didn't work out. In trying to be everything, the tone was really hard to follow.
*funny, poignant, historical, scientific, cultural, popular, informative, defensive, autobiographical, newspaper report...
I like the little comics and the included letters. I liked the beginning enough, but as the book went on, it started to drag. Maybe it was because the book tried to be everything*, and it just didn't work out. In trying to be everything, the tone was really hard to follow.
*funny, poignant, historical, scientific, cultural, popular, informative, defensive, autobiographical, newspaper report...
December 12, 2022
A quick and fun read about how Pluto got demoted to a Dwarf Planet. This book was hilarious in many places.
August 16, 2019
Entertaining book on the object formerly known as the planet Pluto
While I have not read anything by Mr. Tyson in the past and I had only known him by references on the Big Bang Theory TV show, I still found this book on Pluto both informative and entertaining. Informative by telling the reasoning and procedures to define Pluto as a dwarf planet and entertaining to read the reactions to it - everyone from elementary school students to respected journalists are covered. An enjoyable read.
While I have not read anything by Mr. Tyson in the past and I had only known him by references on the Big Bang Theory TV show, I still found this book on Pluto both informative and entertaining. Informative by telling the reasoning and procedures to define Pluto as a dwarf planet and entertaining to read the reactions to it - everyone from elementary school students to respected journalists are covered. An enjoyable read.
April 6, 2012
I'm reminded of that quote from a child's review of a book that said: "This book told me more about penguins than I cared to know." Only substitute penguins for Pluto. I KID, I KID.
No, I feel very informed about Pluto as a planetary object, and this was really a fascinating read, but I have to say, I came out of this book with Dr. Tyson's same conclusion: WHY DID THIS CAUSE SO MUCH CONTROVERSY? The book ends with a cartoon of a news bulletin proclaiming Pluto was no longer a planet, with a picture of Pluto thinking "Like I'm supposed to give a shit?" It's fascinating that some people devoted so much anger and effort into defending Pluto's status as a planet, invoking sentimentality and tradition, when the very nature of science is objectivity and the pursuit of FACTS. Classification and random distinction of labels doesn't change anything about Pluto, it's still out there, spinning around, so the people that got so vitriolic and emotional that we were demoting Pluto, we were shaming it, we were ruining childhoods -- for crying out loud! Who cares?
The analogy to Ceres is spot-on -- astronomers thought Ceres was a small planet between Mars and Jupiter. Then, oh shit, it's surrounded by all these other small planetoid objects, what's going on? Ohhh, they realized, Ceres is just one object of many in what we'll call the asteroid belt. When Pluto was discovered, it was figured, like Ceres to be a planet, the only difference was that it was so far away, and space technology at the time had so far to advance, that we didn't see the rest of the ice chunks and orbital dregs floating out there that made Pluto not so much a planet, as one of the largest bodies in a newfound region called the Kuiper Belt (basically the trans-Neptunian version of the asteroid belt, more ice chunk than space rock because of its vast distance from the sun.) I DON'T KNOW, THAT ALL SEEMS SO SCIENCE-Y AND OF SOUND LOGIC, that the idea that these learned professionals, pioneers in their fields, were reduced to BICKERING over this distant hunk of rock and ice is ... I was going to say laughable but actually it's kind of adorable. Aw, bless. Look at the Plutophiles, getting all hot and bothered.
I think that's what I loved most about this book. Dr. Tyson laid out the history, the facts, the science, the argument, then quoted all the people getting up in arms and replied to each blog post and newspaper article with basically the intellectual equivalent of "LOL U MAD?" Watch out, guys, we've got a badass over here.
No, I feel very informed about Pluto as a planetary object, and this was really a fascinating read, but I have to say, I came out of this book with Dr. Tyson's same conclusion: WHY DID THIS CAUSE SO MUCH CONTROVERSY? The book ends with a cartoon of a news bulletin proclaiming Pluto was no longer a planet, with a picture of Pluto thinking "Like I'm supposed to give a shit?" It's fascinating that some people devoted so much anger and effort into defending Pluto's status as a planet, invoking sentimentality and tradition, when the very nature of science is objectivity and the pursuit of FACTS. Classification and random distinction of labels doesn't change anything about Pluto, it's still out there, spinning around, so the people that got so vitriolic and emotional that we were demoting Pluto, we were shaming it, we were ruining childhoods -- for crying out loud! Who cares?
The analogy to Ceres is spot-on -- astronomers thought Ceres was a small planet between Mars and Jupiter. Then, oh shit, it's surrounded by all these other small planetoid objects, what's going on? Ohhh, they realized, Ceres is just one object of many in what we'll call the asteroid belt. When Pluto was discovered, it was figured, like Ceres to be a planet, the only difference was that it was so far away, and space technology at the time had so far to advance, that we didn't see the rest of the ice chunks and orbital dregs floating out there that made Pluto not so much a planet, as one of the largest bodies in a newfound region called the Kuiper Belt (basically the trans-Neptunian version of the asteroid belt, more ice chunk than space rock because of its vast distance from the sun.) I DON'T KNOW, THAT ALL SEEMS SO SCIENCE-Y AND OF SOUND LOGIC, that the idea that these learned professionals, pioneers in their fields, were reduced to BICKERING over this distant hunk of rock and ice is ... I was going to say laughable but actually it's kind of adorable. Aw, bless. Look at the Plutophiles, getting all hot and bothered.
I think that's what I loved most about this book. Dr. Tyson laid out the history, the facts, the science, the argument, then quoted all the people getting up in arms and replied to each blog post and newspaper article with basically the intellectual equivalent of "LOL U MAD?" Watch out, guys, we've got a badass over here.
November 20, 2014
Before reading this book I had no idea that the author was a major player/instigator in the whole 'Is Pluto a Planet?' situation from the first half of the 2000's. It's pretty amazing how this whole situation and debate blew up over how the Rose Center for Earth and Space decided to depict the planets in their exhibition. Rather than the traditional display of planets listed out from the sun, they categorized them by dividing the solar system up into zones of like objects. Going out from the sun these are:
Terrestrial rocky planets, Asteroid belt, Jovian gas giants, Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud. Arranging these like this makes a lot of sense, BUT, leaves no room for Pluto as an actual planet. It's part of the Kuiper belt of icy objects.
This all started in the year 2000 and gradually gained more media and public attention until in August 2006 the IAU took a vote and decided that Pluto was not a planet. To come to this decision, the IAU first had to come up with an definition of a planet, something that had really never been done before. Even the actual vote was something of a controversy, as Tyson points out, science is not a democracy.
For anyone interested in the subject this makes for fascinating reading. From media and TV takes on the subject up to the various attempts at defining a planet, Tyson adds his own flair and humor to the stories. A rudimentary knowledge of the planets probably helps in understanding.
Terrestrial rocky planets, Asteroid belt, Jovian gas giants, Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud. Arranging these like this makes a lot of sense, BUT, leaves no room for Pluto as an actual planet. It's part of the Kuiper belt of icy objects.
This all started in the year 2000 and gradually gained more media and public attention until in August 2006 the IAU took a vote and decided that Pluto was not a planet. To come to this decision, the IAU first had to come up with an definition of a planet, something that had really never been done before. Even the actual vote was something of a controversy, as Tyson points out, science is not a democracy.
For anyone interested in the subject this makes for fascinating reading. From media and TV takes on the subject up to the various attempts at defining a planet, Tyson adds his own flair and humor to the stories. A rudimentary knowledge of the planets probably helps in understanding.
April 21, 2020
Basically, this book explores the history of humanity's relationship with Pluto. From discovery, to Disney's hopping on the new planet (at the time) bandwagon, to the AMNH's scandalous reclassification in its exhibits, and eventual demotion to dwarf planet. Offers a look into how people can get let emotion get the better of them on even such mundane matters as the scientific definition of celestial bodies.
As this book was written and published several years before New Horizons' encounter with Pluto, you won't get any of the really cool photos that probe produced nor speculation as to what it all means.
This is the first book by Tyson that I've read despite my enjoyment for how he talks about science. His normally prolific enthusiasm seen during interviews is tempered here, though you can catch glimpses of it from time-to-time, including the essay he wrote defending the AMNH move that landed him in hot water with Plutophiles. The addition of the satirical cartoons was a good move.
As this book was written and published several years before New Horizons' encounter with Pluto, you won't get any of the really cool photos that probe produced nor speculation as to what it all means.
This is the first book by Tyson that I've read despite my enjoyment for how he talks about science. His normally prolific enthusiasm seen during interviews is tempered here, though you can catch glimpses of it from time-to-time, including the essay he wrote defending the AMNH move that landed him in hot water with Plutophiles. The addition of the satirical cartoons was a good move.
June 26, 2011
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was voted Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive by people magazine - who would have known such a stud muffin was also an crazy intelligent, funny, and witty writer?!
This book details the history of Pluto's place in both science and people's hearts from the time of it's discovery and naming as a planet all the way to its demotion to a dwarf planet within the Kuiper Belt. Plus it is full of satirical comics and extremely angry and often misspelled letters from damn near homicidal third graders.
If you have ever had a soft spot for the tiny little underdog of a planet or was just curious as to how and why a topic centered around pure science was able to knock 'Brangelina' and Iraq from the front page of the news then you should read this book.
Who knew an astrophysicist could speak/write like a normal human being - plus be totally funny to boot?!
This book details the history of Pluto's place in both science and people's hearts from the time of it's discovery and naming as a planet all the way to its demotion to a dwarf planet within the Kuiper Belt. Plus it is full of satirical comics and extremely angry and often misspelled letters from damn near homicidal third graders.
If you have ever had a soft spot for the tiny little underdog of a planet or was just curious as to how and why a topic centered around pure science was able to knock 'Brangelina' and Iraq from the front page of the news then you should read this book.
Who knew an astrophysicist could speak/write like a normal human being - plus be totally funny to boot?!
December 13, 2016
For such an animated guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote a pretty dry book. Except for a few semi-racy jokes, there's precious little personality on display here. And I found it irritating how often the captions of photos and the footnotes all repeated the same information as the main text. It seemed rather phoned-in.
3 stars. I learned some, but it didn't move me.
3 stars. I learned some, but it didn't move me.
Read
February 22, 2018This was a fun and informative read, and it shows us that you can love Pluto and still believe it's not a planet. I like Dr. Tyson's perspective that objective fact is more important than the labels we apply to it.
July 11, 2015
Even though I really enjoyed this book, I am still mad at Tyson for "demoting" Pluto.
January 9, 2018
Fun as hell, but really short. I love Tyson’s style and would have loved more background.
January 21, 2010
What was the biggest story of 2006? The arrest of the shampoo bombers in England? Small fries. The first World Baseball Classic? YAWN! The death of Don Knotts? Nothin'.
No, as interesting as they were, none of these generated nearly as much public interest and argument as the much ballyhooed "demotion" of Pluto by the International Astronomical Union in August of 2006. Poor little Pluto, hanging out there on the edge of the solar system, got bumped down to "Dwarf Planet," rousing much ire from people all across the United States. And, in a way, Neil deGrasse Tyson bears some responsibility for it.
To be fair, stripping Pluto of its designation as a planet was never on his agenda. No matter what angry elementary school students may have thought, Tyson had no beef against Pluto. It was just that Pluto had the bad fortune to be an oddball planet, and Tyson was working on the redesign of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Whether he wanted to or not - and I'm pretty sure he didn't - he became the public face of this issue, one which gripped the country.
That in itself is weird. Americans are not the most scientifically literate of people. Sure, we like to use the fruits of science, but most people don't really pay attention to things like astronomy unless it's a shuttle launch or a pretty Hubble picture. What's more, the public in general has never really gotten involved in matters of taxonomy. If you went up to someone and said, "Hey, the scientific community is thinking about revising the nomenclature regarding the classification of anaerobic bacteria," they'd probably just walk away swiftly, looking back a few times to make sure the crazy person isn't following them. But tell them that the IAU is planning to demote Pluto, and what you have is a firestorm.
This book is not so much about Pluto itself, but our relationship with that weird little ball of ice and rock. Tyson takes us through our history with Pluto, from its discovery back in 1930 to its demotion in 2006, and tries to figure out just what it is that has endeared it so to the American public.
One possibility, of course, is the fact that Pluto was an American discovery. Percival Lowell was the one to start the hunt, and Clyde Tombaugh finally found it. While the name was suggested by a teenage British girl, everything else about the discovery of Pluto was American, and that was a point of pride. There were only three non-Classical planets in the heavens, and we had claim to one of them. So even if the average American doesn't know the history of Pluto's discovery, we still have a certain love for it.
Despite its diminutive size, Pluto has loomed large in the American imagination. Perhaps there's something of the underdog love in there, too. Americans love to see the little guy win, and if you look at a lot of the pro-Pluto artwork from 2006, the theme of big planets ganging up on a little one was very popular. As odd as this perception might seem from a scientific standpoint, I think a lot of Americans were supporting Pluto because it was being pushed down by The Man, as it were.
And so the country went a little nuts. Newspapers, blogs, websites - even sports reporting got in their digs on the Pluto controversy. There was something for everyone in this story, and everyone who could manage a Pluto reference did so with gusto. It was a mixed blessing, to be sure - the American public was finally excited about astronomy, but it was the excitement of a bar fight, rather than the highbrow intellectualism that many astronomers might have preferred.
What was also interesting about this book was the look at the professional arguments that went on as well. Dispelling the dispassionate image of the astronomer, professionals got really worked up about this, on both sides of the issue. Grown men and women, many of whom were well-versed in many aspects of astronomy, spoke passionately about Pluto. Some called on our sense of tradition and cultural memory, acknowledging that while Pluto may be an oddball, he's our oddball. Others were more than happy to throw Pluto into the Kuiper Belt with the other icy mudballs.
So often, Science is assumed to be some monolithic entity that describes the world with a unanimity of voice. It is supposed to be dispassionate and rational, and we don't really think about the reality of scientific progress. To use the analogy often given to marriage, science is like a duck - stately and sure on the surface, but with a whole lot of work going on down below. The history of science is full of more passion, debate and anger than you might suspect. In order to decide the issue, symposiums were convened, meetings were held, and finally the International Astronomical Union was forced to do something that had never occurred to anyone before: precisely define what is and is not a planet.
In case you're wondering, the definition is quite simple: It has to orbit the sun, be big enough to have attained a spherical shape, and it has to have cleared out its orbit. Pluto fulfills the first two requirements, but badly fails the third. Therefore, it is not a planet. They created a new designation: dwarf planet, including Ceres in the asteroid belt and Haumea, Makemake and Eris out past Pluto. The public may not like it, but that's how it is.
Tyson points out that this is not the first time we have done such a reclassification. With the discovery in the mid-19th century of objects orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, a new class had to be invented in order to keep the number of planets from rocketing into the thousands - and so asteroids were born. The Pluto case is quite similar. Long after Pluto was discovered, more objects, similar in nature, were discovered nearby - some even bigger than Pluto was. The region of rock and ice was named the Kupier Belt, and if Pluto were discovered today, it would most certainly be named as part of it. As much as it pains me to say it, the decision to reclassify Pluto was the right one. At least Tyson and I have revised the Planet Mnemonic the same way: My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nachos.
The rise and fall of Pluto is an interesting story, and a lesson for science educators. No matter how bad it may seem for science in the United States, people can still be surprisingly passionate about scientific topics. It's also a warning against resistance to change. With all that we are learning about the Solar System, to just rattle off a list of planets and be done with it is insufficient. There are so many other ways to look at it now, so many ways to group the hundreds of bodies out there, that perhaps Pluto is more comfortable out with the other Trans-Neptunian objects. With its own kind, as it were, instead of being shoehorned in with eight other guys that it doesn't really have anything in common with.
Ultimately, of course, Pluto doesn't care what we call it. That point was often made on both sides of the argument, and they're right. We could call it Lord Snuggypants the Fourth and it would keep doing what it does out there in the cold and the dark. But it's important for us, and not just because science needs things to be organized so we know what we're talking about. Being able to reclassify Pluto is an indication of the breadth of our knowledge - had we not made such progress, Pluto's classification would never have been in doubt.
The "demotion" of Pluto is a sign of our amazing achievements over the last eighty years. We have not lost a planet - we have gained understanding. So in the end, the Great Pluto Debate is one that we should look back upon fondly.
No, as interesting as they were, none of these generated nearly as much public interest and argument as the much ballyhooed "demotion" of Pluto by the International Astronomical Union in August of 2006. Poor little Pluto, hanging out there on the edge of the solar system, got bumped down to "Dwarf Planet," rousing much ire from people all across the United States. And, in a way, Neil deGrasse Tyson bears some responsibility for it.
To be fair, stripping Pluto of its designation as a planet was never on his agenda. No matter what angry elementary school students may have thought, Tyson had no beef against Pluto. It was just that Pluto had the bad fortune to be an oddball planet, and Tyson was working on the redesign of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Whether he wanted to or not - and I'm pretty sure he didn't - he became the public face of this issue, one which gripped the country.
That in itself is weird. Americans are not the most scientifically literate of people. Sure, we like to use the fruits of science, but most people don't really pay attention to things like astronomy unless it's a shuttle launch or a pretty Hubble picture. What's more, the public in general has never really gotten involved in matters of taxonomy. If you went up to someone and said, "Hey, the scientific community is thinking about revising the nomenclature regarding the classification of anaerobic bacteria," they'd probably just walk away swiftly, looking back a few times to make sure the crazy person isn't following them. But tell them that the IAU is planning to demote Pluto, and what you have is a firestorm.
This book is not so much about Pluto itself, but our relationship with that weird little ball of ice and rock. Tyson takes us through our history with Pluto, from its discovery back in 1930 to its demotion in 2006, and tries to figure out just what it is that has endeared it so to the American public.
One possibility, of course, is the fact that Pluto was an American discovery. Percival Lowell was the one to start the hunt, and Clyde Tombaugh finally found it. While the name was suggested by a teenage British girl, everything else about the discovery of Pluto was American, and that was a point of pride. There were only three non-Classical planets in the heavens, and we had claim to one of them. So even if the average American doesn't know the history of Pluto's discovery, we still have a certain love for it.
Despite its diminutive size, Pluto has loomed large in the American imagination. Perhaps there's something of the underdog love in there, too. Americans love to see the little guy win, and if you look at a lot of the pro-Pluto artwork from 2006, the theme of big planets ganging up on a little one was very popular. As odd as this perception might seem from a scientific standpoint, I think a lot of Americans were supporting Pluto because it was being pushed down by The Man, as it were.
And so the country went a little nuts. Newspapers, blogs, websites - even sports reporting got in their digs on the Pluto controversy. There was something for everyone in this story, and everyone who could manage a Pluto reference did so with gusto. It was a mixed blessing, to be sure - the American public was finally excited about astronomy, but it was the excitement of a bar fight, rather than the highbrow intellectualism that many astronomers might have preferred.
What was also interesting about this book was the look at the professional arguments that went on as well. Dispelling the dispassionate image of the astronomer, professionals got really worked up about this, on both sides of the issue. Grown men and women, many of whom were well-versed in many aspects of astronomy, spoke passionately about Pluto. Some called on our sense of tradition and cultural memory, acknowledging that while Pluto may be an oddball, he's our oddball. Others were more than happy to throw Pluto into the Kuiper Belt with the other icy mudballs.
So often, Science is assumed to be some monolithic entity that describes the world with a unanimity of voice. It is supposed to be dispassionate and rational, and we don't really think about the reality of scientific progress. To use the analogy often given to marriage, science is like a duck - stately and sure on the surface, but with a whole lot of work going on down below. The history of science is full of more passion, debate and anger than you might suspect. In order to decide the issue, symposiums were convened, meetings were held, and finally the International Astronomical Union was forced to do something that had never occurred to anyone before: precisely define what is and is not a planet.
In case you're wondering, the definition is quite simple: It has to orbit the sun, be big enough to have attained a spherical shape, and it has to have cleared out its orbit. Pluto fulfills the first two requirements, but badly fails the third. Therefore, it is not a planet. They created a new designation: dwarf planet, including Ceres in the asteroid belt and Haumea, Makemake and Eris out past Pluto. The public may not like it, but that's how it is.
Tyson points out that this is not the first time we have done such a reclassification. With the discovery in the mid-19th century of objects orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, a new class had to be invented in order to keep the number of planets from rocketing into the thousands - and so asteroids were born. The Pluto case is quite similar. Long after Pluto was discovered, more objects, similar in nature, were discovered nearby - some even bigger than Pluto was. The region of rock and ice was named the Kupier Belt, and if Pluto were discovered today, it would most certainly be named as part of it. As much as it pains me to say it, the decision to reclassify Pluto was the right one. At least Tyson and I have revised the Planet Mnemonic the same way: My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nachos.
The rise and fall of Pluto is an interesting story, and a lesson for science educators. No matter how bad it may seem for science in the United States, people can still be surprisingly passionate about scientific topics. It's also a warning against resistance to change. With all that we are learning about the Solar System, to just rattle off a list of planets and be done with it is insufficient. There are so many other ways to look at it now, so many ways to group the hundreds of bodies out there, that perhaps Pluto is more comfortable out with the other Trans-Neptunian objects. With its own kind, as it were, instead of being shoehorned in with eight other guys that it doesn't really have anything in common with.
Ultimately, of course, Pluto doesn't care what we call it. That point was often made on both sides of the argument, and they're right. We could call it Lord Snuggypants the Fourth and it would keep doing what it does out there in the cold and the dark. But it's important for us, and not just because science needs things to be organized so we know what we're talking about. Being able to reclassify Pluto is an indication of the breadth of our knowledge - had we not made such progress, Pluto's classification would never have been in doubt.
The "demotion" of Pluto is a sign of our amazing achievements over the last eighty years. We have not lost a planet - we have gained understanding. So in the end, the Great Pluto Debate is one that we should look back upon fondly.
February 18, 2020
I had finished with my formal education by the time the great debate on whether or not Pluto was a planet was being discussed. I never really looked into the topic and was interested to learn more. Neil deGrasse Tyson writes this book with humor and candor, including anecdotes from his own life and a history lesson that includes a trip to Disney. I especially liked the cartoons and correspondence from concerned science fans of all ages. This book also has 9 chapters, which I feel is a proper homage to the space object which is Pluto. One of the more interesting things I learned is that the love for the (former) planet Pluto is a very American thing due to an American astronomer discovering Pluto and Pluto being the name of Mickey's pet.
August 14, 2019
5 Stars. NGT once again writes a book that rocks my world.
NGT writes in the manner as he speaks. His style remains
Casual
Concise
Knowledgeable
Informative
Descriptive
Humorous.
I questioned why Pluto had been demoted to minor planet/planetoid/asteroid status. I was missing Pluto. Now I am in agreement that Pluto is not a planet and never was. Find out if you agree with a developing understanding of what constitutes a planet and if you agree that Pluto be recognozed a large spherical asteroid, maybe a special one, but an asteroid.
NGT writes in the manner as he speaks. His style remains
Casual
Concise
Knowledgeable
Informative
Descriptive
Humorous.
I questioned why Pluto had been demoted to minor planet/planetoid/asteroid status. I was missing Pluto. Now I am in agreement that Pluto is not a planet and never was. Find out if you agree with a developing understanding of what constitutes a planet and if you agree that Pluto be recognozed a large spherical asteroid, maybe a special one, but an asteroid.
May 7, 2024
Listen here…I love Pluto just like everyone else but it’s not a planet and this book does a great job of explaining why it’s not. It was an interesting read that taught me things I didn’t know before.
August 26, 2023
I randomly picked this up at the library for something light to read. I learned so much and of course Tyson is hilarious. You should read this!
December 6, 2014
This book was not quite what I had expected, but that is more my fault since I was expecting more science than I got in this book. This is a mostly quite personal description from Tyson's point of view of the fuss made by American's over the change in status of Pluto. As Tyson pointed out, ultimately it really wasn't all that important in that it didn't change any of the realities of the world....Pluto is still the same physical spacial body it was before the change in status...but acknowledges that this change was important to many Americans. Well, Pluto is the only American major contribution to the planetary makeup. All other of the large planets were discovered elsewhere, not surprising seeing that many were found well before America became a nation. I did get a better understanding of what the phrase clear their neighborhood around their orbit. That means that when you add up the mass of items striking the planetary body, that it be considerably less than the mass of the body being struck. For example, Earth gets lots of meteors over time but adding up all the mass totals a small percentage of how much mass Earth has. That is not true for Pluto. The amount hitting it will add up to more than Pluto's mass. According to Tyson, a lot of the uproar comes down to the fact that we now need to come up with a nice new mnemonic for remembering the name and order of the planets. He points out that is really the least important part of learning about our solar system and hopes that the lack of a mnemonic might mean greater actual understanding of what we can learn from our solar system for school children. This is very important to him. He quoted from numerous letters from elementary kids on the subject and clearly hopes that they might get a deeper understanding of what we know about our solar system than merely reciting the names of the major spacial bodies in the solar system in correct order from the sun.
December 20, 2011
I've had the pleasure of seeing Neil deGrasse Tyson speak live twice - and many more times on YouTube - and always felt that this man had nothing to fear about the future: if his career as an astrophysicist (and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City) imporbably came to an end, he could comfortably make a living as a stand-up comedian.
His wonderful sense of humour translates very well to the page, too. The Pluto Files is an informative and very entertaining chronicle of Pluto's planethood controversy. It traces the story of the orb from its discovery by amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 to the time when its short-lived (75-year) career as a planet came to an end, the unintended consquence of the Hayden Planetarium's decision to take a different approach in exhibiting celestial bodies.
It took a year for the public to get wind of the change but when it did, reactions were strong and passionate from both sides of the aisle and eventually led to the official demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. In the process, a gap in astronomy was exposed - the lack of a definition for a planet - and Tyson found himself at the receiving end of the wrath of Pluto's adoring public, from scientists to journalists to elementary school kids.
"... Pluto's demotion became a window on who and what we are as a culture, blending themes drawn from party politics, social protest, celebrity worship, economic indicators, academic dogma, education policy, social bigotry, and jingoism."
And you thought it was only about science!
The Pluto Files is a quick, fun read made even more colourful with the addition of extensive quotes from and reproductions of children's letters, photographs, cartoons, song lyrics and even the text of state legislation resolutions defening Pluto's planethood.
His wonderful sense of humour translates very well to the page, too. The Pluto Files is an informative and very entertaining chronicle of Pluto's planethood controversy. It traces the story of the orb from its discovery by amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 to the time when its short-lived (75-year) career as a planet came to an end, the unintended consquence of the Hayden Planetarium's decision to take a different approach in exhibiting celestial bodies.
It took a year for the public to get wind of the change but when it did, reactions were strong and passionate from both sides of the aisle and eventually led to the official demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. In the process, a gap in astronomy was exposed - the lack of a definition for a planet - and Tyson found himself at the receiving end of the wrath of Pluto's adoring public, from scientists to journalists to elementary school kids.
"... Pluto's demotion became a window on who and what we are as a culture, blending themes drawn from party politics, social protest, celebrity worship, economic indicators, academic dogma, education policy, social bigotry, and jingoism."
And you thought it was only about science!
The Pluto Files is a quick, fun read made even more colourful with the addition of extensive quotes from and reproductions of children's letters, photographs, cartoons, song lyrics and even the text of state legislation resolutions defening Pluto's planethood.
July 6, 2015
I received this book as a gift when it was released, and the "demotion" of Pluto was still a fairly hot topic. I wasn't terribly interested as I considered the whole thing pretty silly. My reaction was, "Pluto doesn't care what we call it" and "planet is a term humans invented, so there's no real scientific value." In fact, my opinion was that the term planet should only apply to the classical wanderers of the sky, and thus exclude Uranus and Neptune as well. Anyway, with the impending fly-by of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft, I suddenly got the urge to read this book, and I have to say I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Dr Tyson's comprehensive yet easy-to-read treatment of the history of Pluto, including its predicted existence (though largely by accident), discovery, sweep into popular culture with the Disney character, and eventual "downfall" is entertaining and educational. His writing is as witty as you would expect, and I found it impossible not to hear his baritone voice while I read. He makes an excellent case for dropping this notion that we must enumerate and memorize the "planets" and instead group the Solar System bodies in ways that lead to deeper scientific insight. This is an exciting time for space exploration as we are witnessing the crossing of a new frontier, studying the icy realm of Pluto, Charon, Hydra, Nix, and Eris. The Solar System is so much more than a number.
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