Demolition of Pluto

The Demolition of Pluto

During a period of seventy years, it was believed that the existence of planets occupying the solar system consisted of: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Once Mike Brown and his team officially discovered the tenth planet, Xena, later renamed Eris, being slightly larger than Pluto, many scientists were skeptical as to whether Eris and Pluto should truly be considered a planet. The lingering question of Pluto’s planetary status was suddenly untenable. The International Astronomical Union and Mike Brown formulated an official, restricting definition of what a planet is, which excluded both Eris and Pluto. Many people were shocked by the “death” of Pluto. Brown wrote a non-fictional narrative about his contribution to the demolition of Pluto. Even though non-fiction novels may be one of the more difficult genres of literature to read, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown is both fascinating and educational because Pluto’s historic and scientific background information is engrossing, the reviews of the book further prove that Brown wasn’t trying to murder Pluto, but to uncover new planets, and the subject of Pluto’s “death” has left an impact on the culture.

Not much is known about Pluto’s scientific background and how it came to be mainly because it is remarkably far from the Earth and very little was established about its surface and atmospheric conditions. “Pluto is just about 3.5 billion miles away from the sun” (Kennedy 1). It was the farthest planet in the solar system until Mike Brown discovered Xena within the proximity of Pluto, 18 months before the final decision. Pluto’s distance from the sun makes it one of the coldest places in the so...

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... astronomers discover and research more about it and the universe.

Works Cited

Brown, Mike. How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. New York: Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks, 2012. Print.

Choi, Charles Q. "Pluto, the Ninth Planet That Was a Dwarf." Space.com. N.p., 12 July 2012. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. .

Kennedy, James. "The Man Who Made a Planet Vanish." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Nov.-Dec. 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

"Pluto Demoted from Planetary Status." Historic World Events. Detroit: Gale, 2011.Student Resources in Context. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

"Pluto." World of Scientific Discovery. Gale, 2008. Student Resources in Context. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.

Taylor, Gilbert. "How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming." Booklist 107.8 (2010): 8. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.