"Planet, or Not Planet: That Is The Question"

"How I Killed Pluto and Why It had It Coming" is centered around Mike Brown’s life and the history of his scientific discoveries. In a very interesting way, we get to know the highlights of his professional career. Nevertheless, the book is not only focused on his work, but it also tells us a lot about his private life. He never hesitates to talk about his love towards his family; he repeatedly shows that the love towards his family is as important as his discoveries.

I was fascinated by the way he pictured his fatherly love in this book. I think he did a great job in presenting how it is to be a parent. I hope that one day I will be able to feel similar feelings. I especially liked how he showed the love toward his new born daughter – Lilah. He combined his fatherly feelings with his scientific eagerness and studied every behavior of the baby very exactly. He then published all his insights online (http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/lilah/). It is very interesting to read how he combines the stress of being a first-time father with the stress of being on the zenith of his career.

The debate over the status of Pluto was unlashed in 2005 by Mike Brown as his team and he discovered a celestial body which is larger than Pluto. At first this sounds like good news for Mike, who since he was a student, always wanted to discover a new planet. However, this discovery had a bitter taste for him; it was only one of many discoveries made in that part of the solar system. Today we know that there are hundreds of such bodies in this region called the Kuiper belt. He knew that what he discovered is nothing special and should not be considered a planet. Therefore, he supported a definition of the word "Planet" that would only contain the traditional eight big celestial bodies, even if it means that he didn’t discover a planet. He literally gave up his dream in the name of science.

Here you can see how small Pluto is compared to the Earth and the Moon. 

Everything that happened in the early 2000s seems to be far away. While the debate about Pluto’s planet-status was happening I just entered grade school. I am part of the first generation who was never taught that Pluto was a planet. Because I didn’t experience the dispute, I thought it must be a part of remote scientific history. I only realized on how recent the debate is as I thought about how Lilah – who was born at the peak of the debate – might be today. She is 13 now and she is about to turn 14. That is exactly the same age as my little sister, and to me she is still a little child.

Towards the end of the book Mike Brown spends a long time justifying why he argued against Pluto being a planet. It is understandable that he needs to do that, especially given the bad reaction of some people. Nevertheless, I thought it was a little bit redundant to do so. If you read the book from the beginning, you already know his line of reasoning. He is developing his opinion about planets throughout his career and he describes the evolution of his opinion throughout the book. Therefore, I think it was too repetitive to spend almost a whole chapter at the end of the book just for his justification. Everybody who reads the book up to that point already knows exactly why he did what he did.

Overall the book was easy to read, and it gives you many insights into the scientific world. If you have dealt with astronomy in the past, you are going to recognize many of the little things with which astronomers deal everyday. If you are new to the field, it gives you a deep insight in the mindset of astronomers who are always pressured to be the first ones to discover something.