The Pluto Files

I feel like I need to redact, or at least expound on, one of my comments in a previous post.  I said something to the effect of, "scientists aren't shaken to the core when pluto loses its planetary status."  Well, it turns out I may have been partially wrong.  Because I was spurred to curiosity by my own comment, I checked out Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson's little book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.

The story of Pluto as told by Dr. Tyson is, if I may use a slightly tedious witticism, out of this world. Since its discovery, by American astronomer, Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930, Pluto has had a special place in American culture. This is why many Americans lashed out at Tyson and his team members at the Rose Center for Earth and Space for neglecting to include Pluto in their planetary exhibition. The decision made by the Rose Center sparked an international, though according to Tyson, mainly American, controversy over the planetary status of Pluto. This debate culminated in in the IAU's 2006 resolution that defined the term "planet" and demoted Pluto to a "dwarf planet."

Letter sent to Dr. Tyson after Pluto's demotion.

The Pluto Files is a candid account of the controversy, written by the man at the center of it all.  Tyson includes several hilarious letters he received from angered, applauding, and even ambivalent schoolchildren, and he details much of the pop-cultural reaction to Pluto's demotion.  In addition he recounts many of the interactions he had with other leading scientists during the debate.  While a strong majority of scientists favored the new designation, there were several outspoken advocates of Pluto's planethood.  In short, some scientists were shaken to the core.  I think, however, that many of these scientists were reacting emotionally because they had so much personally invested in Pluto--their careers focused on it, they are somehow related to the discoverer, etc; they may not have been behaving 100% rationally.  But who behaves completely rationally all the time?  Spock.  Maybe.  I don't know.  Anyways, read The Pluto Files; it's a short and entertaining book that is informative and fun. I would definitely recommend it!