Book 1 Post 1

 

The author of How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, Mike Brown, writes an intriguing recount of his time discovering a small planet that he named Xena. After receiving the book in the mail, my first question was how does this relate to Pluto? The structure of the book was very intentional and well thought out because the Prologue explained the significance of Pluto to Xena, the tenth planet the author discovered, thus providing his audience with the essential context when heading into the rest of the book. This context is paramount for understanding how all the starting efforts before he discovered Xena, contributed to his later discovery of the tenth planet. Even reading about his experience when he learned about planets when he was a child and how that evolved into looking at the sky to notice patterns of stars was key to understanding his mindset when approaching his work of discovering a new planet.  

There were several parts throughout the beginning of this book that stood out to me as not only a student but someone who becomes passionate about the projects they work on. For example, one of the things is that he discredits himself by asking what kind of astronomer would declare that there is another planet past Pluto, which stood out to me as embodying the feeling of anxiety when doing something against the grain for the first time. I couldn’t help but think about myself, as an individual, trying to fight those negative thoughts saying to myself, “What kind of normal person would do this?” Even when recruiting and trying to find a job, I find myself asking, “What would other people applying to this job be doing?” Personally, I thought this was an effective way of starting the book as it is a statement that everyone can relate to at least partially in some experience of experiencing doubt in a decision. 

With this being said, the book gave a thorough explanation of not only the scientist’s perspective when it comes to discovering a planet but also the criteria to be classified as a planet. There is a significant amount of history about the transition to the heliocentric theory, which radically changed the way people look at planets. Additionally, the author discusses how astronomers thought that moons were planets at first until they realized that their small size made them not qualify as planets. As a result, this led to the discovery of moons and bloomed his hatred for moons. I thought this was a funny and personable detail that made the audience relate to his work more even if they are not astronomers themselves. Also, it reminds me of how much trial and error goes into the fundamental ideals that are commonly accepted by everyone through scientific discovery.