This is a book from my own library, one that I bought last year, but only now have read. And what a wonder it is! How can an astronomer be such a funny writer?
How I Killed Pluto, and Why It Had It Coming, by Mike Brown (HC, 2010, $5)
The most surprising part of this book on planets, or not-planets, is the amount of time Brown spends talking about the joy of marriage and fatherhood. Now this is man with the right priorities!
In regards to the planet part of the book, I found the discussion on who gets to claim discovery of a celestial body particularly fascinating. Is the discovery credited to the person who first announces the discovery, the one who finds it first, or the one who publishes a paper on it first? Then there is the main point, the definition of what a planet is. Mike Brown discovered lots of previously unknown stuff in the outer solar system, including something called Xena that is larger than Pluto. So if Pluto is a planet, then Brown's "Xena" would also be a planet. But if so, what about all the other newly discovered stuff in the outer solar system that also fits that definition of a planet?
Being an astronomer is not as boring as it sounds. I think you will enjoy reading this man's adventure as much as I did. Look for it on the new non-fiction table, avail. 1/25. (Later: astronomy)
