Book One: Post Two "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming" by Mike Brown

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown, is an autobiographical memoir of Brown’s quest to find a new planet in the solar system. In the late 90’s, Brown made a bet with another astronomer that within the next 5 years, he would discover a new “planet” on the edge of the solar system past Pluto. After a 5-day extension, Brown barely won the bet by discovering the planet of Eris. This event toppled the traditional structure of the solar system and sparked a fierce debate about the definition of a planet which would eventually lead to the death of Pluto as a planet and give life to the classification of Dwarf Planets. Mike experienced harsh criticism from both the scientific community and the public as a result of the decision, including nasty emails and public confrontations with Pluto fans. But Mike valiantly defends and carefully explains the importance of the death of Pluto, illustrating the way that it reshapes our perspective of the solar system. Alongside this tense scientific battle, Mike discovers that life is what happens when you’re busy making plans as he falls in love and becomes a father.

This book is a wonderfully told story of fate, love, and science and how the 3 often intertwine in our lives. The novel is full of heartfelt stories and interesting anecdotes and has a terrific flow that makes it a joy to read. I appreciated Mike’s nerdy humor because I am a huge nerd too. I really loved the simplistic way that Mike is able to break down these very lofty and complicated scientific concepts through the use of clever metaphors. He often changes perspective in order to give you a better perspective of what exactly he is talking about. For example, he talks about the importance of the new classification of Pluto by explaining how an alien race who had never encountered our solar system before might go about classifying all the planets and uses this to show how our scientific objectivity is skewed by our inherent bias due to the fact that we live inside of the solar system. The novel is full of this sort of clever writing which makes the novel very enjoyable.

Overall, if you’re looking for an engaging read and have any sort of interest in astronomy, I highly recommend this book. Its full of witty humor and personal heartfelt anecdotes which are truly touching. Mike’s stories about his wife and daughter are one of the most important aspects of the book, and often have more to say about life as any scientist could ever learn through looking through a telescope. Although it is a bit long out of all the books that we had to choose from, I’m really glad that I picked this book since it was so engaging and made me learn universal truths about life rather than just mere scientific facts. After reading this book, I have a newfound passion for astronomy, and sometimes I look up at the night sky and wonder what else is left to be uncovered out there in the darkness?