How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
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How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Mike Brown (Author), Ryan Gesell (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 749 ratings
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The debate culminated in the demotion of Pluto from real planet to the newly coined category of “dwarf” planet. Suddenly Brown was receiving hate mail from schoolchildren and being bombarded by TV reporters—all because of the discovery he had spent years searching for and a lifetime dreaming about. Filled with both humor and drama, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is Mike Brown’s engaging first-person account of the most tumultuous year in modern astronomy—which he inadvertently caused. As it guides readers through important scientific concepts and inspires us to think more deeply about our place in the cosmos, it is also an entertaining and enlightening personal story: While Brown sought to expand our understanding of the vast nature of space, his own life was changed in the most immediate, human ways by love, birth, and death. A heartfelt and personal perspective on the demotion of everyone’s favorite farflung planet, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is the book for anyone, young or old, who has ever dreamed of exploring the universe—and who among us hasn’t?

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  1. Listening Length
    7 hours and 48 minutes
  2. Author
    Mike Brown
  3. Narrator
    Ryan Gesell
  4. Audible release date
    December 7, 2010
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B004FI1B42
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 7 hours and 48 minutes
Author Mike Brown
Narrator Ryan Gesell
Audible.com Release Date December 07, 2010
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B004FI1B42
Best Sellers Rank #139,818 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#157 in Astronomy (Audible Books & Originals)
#214 in History of Science
#349 in Physics (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
749 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ursiform
5.0 out of 5 stars Pluto's executioner speaks!
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2010
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The bit about killing Pluto is a joke, of course. Pluto is still out there, just as oblivious of what people call it as ever. But it was Mike Brown whose discoveries forced the astronomy community to address the anomaly of Pluto being classified as a planet. And he, despite his years-long quest to discover a tenth planet, despite the glory associated with being the only living discoverer of a planet, was true to his scientific convictions, and argued against his discovery, and therefore against Pluto, being considered a planet.

I will admit that I came into the Pluto controversy with a strong view of my own. I am one of those people who concluded many years ago, long before I ever heard of Mike Brown, that Pluto was not a planet. When it was discovered Pluto was thought to be quite a large object, and its designation as a planet made sense. But additional measurements showed it to be much smaller than originally thought,* smaller, in fact, than Neptune's moon Triton, itself believed to be a captured Kuiper Belt object. Further, it is locked in a orbital resonance with Neptune, where Pluto makes three orbits of the sun in the time Neptune makes two. So Pluto doesn't even orbit freely around the sun.**

I've heard Mike Brown talk about his experiences, and came to this book expecting a good read. He delivered. The astronomy is interwoven with Brown's life during the period of discovery. Some may object to this, but scientific discoveries are made by people who are concurrently living their lives. Too often what we hear about are the odd ducks who live only for their science. But most scientists aren't like that; most have lives beyond science, and their work is intertwined with their broader existence.

In this book we follow Brown from his early years in astronomy to his decision to look for another planet beyond Pluto. During his early, less than successful, attempts he meets, as a result of his work, the woman who will become his wife. We follow his courtship, marriage, and honeymoon as the search continues. The fruition of his search, the discovery of several large Kuiper Belt objects, overlaps the gestation and birth of his daughter.

During the time he is completing papers on his discoveries, and awaiting his daughter's birth, controversy erupts. A previously unknown astronomer in Spain appeared to have found one of his discoveries, and beat him to a public announcement. Initially gracious, Brown learns that the Spaniard apparently used the internet to learn where he had pointed a telescope to track the object, and used that knowledge to find the object and claim the discovery. This motivates a discussion of how science works, and the competing pressures to, on the one hand, announce discoveries so as to claim credit and, on the other hand, to get the facts together and write a comprehensive paper that adequately describes the discovery.

Having weathered that controversy, the Pluto issue explodes. Brown provides a comprehensive discussion of why it doesn't make sense to call Pluto a planet. He writes about the last time astronomers had this problem. (No, Pluto wasn't the first.) When Ceres was discovered between Mars and Jupiter in 1801 it was considered the eighth planet. (Neptune hadn't yet been discovered.) Then more "planets" were discovered between Mars and Jupiter. It was eventually realized that all these bodies couldn't be considered planets, and they ended up all being called asteroids. (The decision of the International Astronomical Union on Pluto made Ceres, like Pluto, a "dwarf planet".)

Similarly, Brown argues convincingly that Pluto is simply one of the larger bodies in the Kuiper belt. Its interaction with Neptune caused it to be discovered earlier than other large Kuiper Belt objects, but it is otherwise unexceptional. The book includes an excellent discussion on how scientists choose categories for objects, and why definitions matter.

All in all, this is a compelling book that captures the story of discovery and two controversies, as well as the reality--sometimes mundane, sometimes not--of how scientists actually live and work. And how can you not love a book where the astronomer gets the girl?

* In 1980 A. J. Dessler and C. T. Russell wrote a humorous one page paper that was published in EOS (vol. 61, no. 44, page 690) titled "From the Ridiculous to the Sublime: The Pending Disappearance of Pluto". In it they pretended to take the historical mass estimates of Pluto as being correct, did a mathematical fit, and predicted that Pluto would disappear in 1984. They then speculated on what would happen after it disappeared. This is available online, just search for it.

** I've heard the argument that Neptune could just as well be said to be in an orbital resonance with Pluto. While in a narrow technical sense that is true, saying it makes about as much sense as saying Neptune is in orbit around its moon Triton. Neptune is eight thousand times more massive than Pluto, and "captured" Pluto while itself remaining in a nearly circular orbit. Further, there are other Kuiper Belt objects in orbital resonance with Neptune, Pluto is simply the largest. When it comes to gravity size--or at least mass--matters.
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Fry Boy
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and informative
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2011
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After several years of curiosity regarding the declassification of Pluto as a planet, I happened upon this book and finally decided it would be worthwhile to get the full story. The book is a rather informative primer on astrophysics, putting everything in layman's terms so that anyone can follow along.

The book follows Mike Brown from his early days in astrophysical studies to his post-Pluto-killing days. At the beginning, he indicates that his main goal as a young scientist is to discover another planet in the solar system and establishes that whatever he finds should be bigger than Pluto so that his discovery is a planetary shoe-in. What ensues, however, are years of searching--through astronomical telescopes, physical photo files and digital photo archives--along with a host of roadblocks and failures. Brown makes it abundantly clear that searching the space around us is no small task.

What really helps this book is Brown's sense of humor, which helps to speed along the narrative. Other aspects going for it are: the clear explanations of astronomy; the brief history of planetary discoveries; an overview of astronomical telescope operations (who knew the waiting lists for use were so long?) and technology; the shady dealings of an Iberian research group.

Note that, because the timeline of the book is many years, part of the story necessarily covers how he met his wife along with the birth and raising of his daughter. Just when you think Brown's about to talk about his wife or daughter too much and risk losing his reader, he switches gears and gets back into the serious meat of his story. He's always on topic.

I definitely came away learning quite a bit from this book and had a good time in the process.
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Thomas C. Fletcher
5.0 out of 5 stars A very readable book on planets and the Pluto controversy
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2015
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Mike Brown is a planetary scientist who, along with others, has discovered several dwarf planets, which, it turns out, are not planets at all -- they're something lesser and not necessarily only lesser in size.

What is a planet, anyway? That's a tough question, one that's boggled great minds and those of us who are simply curious about planets in general. The latest controversy (and, no, it's not the only one in history) came about not so very long ago when the experts began to wonder if Pluto really was a planet. The world certainly knew it as one but it had fallen on hard times when it was discovered over a number of years that it's just not very big. In fact, it's smaller than our own moon. In fact there are a number of moons that are larger than our own moon and yet no one calls them a planet. Well, that's simple: they're orbiting planets so they've got to be moons, right?

Maybe, kinda, well, hmmmm. The problem here is how to classify planets or moons for that matter. All of the planets are different. There are different kinds of planets -- terrestrial planets are named after Earth (terra) and include Mercury, Venus, Earth & Mars; then there are the Jovian ones, named after Jupiter (Jove). Terrestrial planets are rocky ones, Jovians are the gasbags -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune -- and yet all of them are very different. Earth has oceans, the other terrestrials don't. Jupiter is bigger than all the other planets combined.

And now we have Dwarf Planets, but they decided that they are NOT really planets, though the word is included.

Very puzzling indeed. Real planets, like the original 8 (NOT Pluto, not anymore!) are the ones that have a "dominant effect" on the solar system. I would never argue that Jupiter is anything but a major player around here what with its powerful gravitational field and all. But Mercury? It's small, hard to see oftentimes, and poses very little threat. The lesser stuff, those non-planets like asteroids and such that may get hurled in our direction to cause mass destruction (if and when they hit us) or joy (like when they run into Jupiter) seem a much more dominant effect to me.

I could go on and on and on but I wouldn't help you understand. But I'm happy to report that this book is not only good at explaining these problems but is very readable and even well-rounded -- we hear a lot about his young daughter who was a newborn baby when he got involved with the Pluto controversy and who actually communicated through sign language before she could speak. And she likes planets. Now THAT's a good kid! And you'll also learn about just how hard it is to find out about those faraway bodies that Dr. Brown and his colleagues are discovering -- we still really don't know how big Pluto truly is (though we'll get a better handle on it New Horizons spacecraft has just reached it).

A very good book, indeed! Another related one is "The Pluto Files" by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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CK
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Canada on January 1, 2020
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Excellent book
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Konrad Probsthain
5.0 out of 5 stars Anrührende Liebesgeschichte eines Entdeckers
Reviewed in Germany on June 1, 2018
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Mike fahndet mit bewundernswerter Ausdauer, ja mit Besessenheit, nach dem zehnten Planeten, entdeckt ihn schließlich und muss doch helfen, ihn gleich wieder vom Thron zu stoßen. Aber er findet auch seine große Liebe. So schön kann Forschung sein.
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Renato Langersek
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for any Astronomy buff.
Reviewed in Australia on July 31, 2021
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An excellent book about the discovery of several objects in our Solar System that rival Pluto in size. Well written and exciting to read. Essential reading for any Astronomy buff.
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alapper
5.0 out of 5 stars The most interesting book I have read in recent years - with a terrible title
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2014
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This really is a good book - please do not be put off by the terrible, rather immature title as I nearly was. If you are at all interested in the life of experimental science of astronomy today then this is very much the book for you. It rather brings up to date the account given in the first chapters of Fred Hoyle's 'the black cloud' - only this time it's real life not fiction. This account centres on the discovery in recent years by Mike Brown and his team of the large Kuiper Belt objects - in particular Eris, which is slightly larger than Pluto and in a previous era would undoubtedly been hailed as the fabled tenth planet. It details the tremendous amount of hard work involved and alongside this, Mike's love life, his marriage and birth of his daughter. An intriguing account is given of an attempt (by a very cunning subterfuge) of a foreign astronomer to steal and claim for himself one of Mike's discoveries. This well illustrates the perennial problem in science of getting results published without them being stolen by someone else - which must nearly always involve a certain amount of initial secrecy. In respect of this he also mentions the case of Bell-Burnett who is often regarded as having her contribution to the discovery of Pulsars rather underplayed by her supervisor. The last chapter is a account of the demotion of Pluto (and hence Eris) to the status of dwarf planets by the IAU - a move strongly supported (with very full and drawn out reasons) by the author despite the fact that the decision is not to his advantage.
Overall this really is very interestingly written with the personal nicely intermingled with the practical and the description of astronomical practices at just the right level for a layman to the subject. I wish there had been more of it. Good luck in the future Mike!
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Rosie Wallace
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read in a long time.
Reviewed in Australia on May 11, 2021
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The book makes losing Pluto as a planet a little less painful
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