The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet - Neil de Grasse Tyson

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet

By Neil de Grasse Tyson

  • Release Date: 2010-07-12
  • Genre: Astronomy
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 26 Ratings

Description

The New York Times bestseller: "You gotta read this. It is the most exciting book about Pluto you will ever read in your life." —Jon Stewart
When the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on page one, "Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York." Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were choosing sides over Pluto's planethood. Pluto is entrenched in our cultural and emotional view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, award-winning author and director of the Rose Center, is on a quest to discover why. He stood at the heart of the controversy over Pluto's demotion, and consequently Plutophiles have freely shared their opinions with him, including endless hate mail from third-graders. With his inimitable wit, Tyson delivers a minihistory of planets, describes the oversized characters of the people who study them, and recounts how America's favorite planet was ousted from the cosmic hub.

Reviews

  • A good book but...

    4
    By taggat
    A great read on the history, cultural significance, and debate surrounding the fall of Pluto from the planetary line up. This book makes a great companion to the PBS NOVA program of the same name, but in the iBook version I purchased is was deceitfully short as the last 40 pages or so were one line references to other authors or quotes that were used in the book.

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