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

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393350364
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	136,743
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	NC1300L (what's this?)

About the Author

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Times best-selling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

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A witty cosmological narrative about a pint-sized planet that got "lost."

Pluto had a 76-year run as a planet, until it was demoted in August 2006. Though now relegated to "dwarf planet" status, this cosmological runt still maintains its huge fan base, especially in the United States. In fact, some American scientists continue to fight an uphill battle to get the celestial body reinstated, and recent straw polls show that Pluto remains the favorite planet among American elementary school students, perhaps because it shares its name with a cartoon character. Neil deGrasse Tyson's delightfully diverting The Pluto File tracks the weird history of this extraterrestrial underdog and its irrepressible popularity.

Editorial Reviews

"An eclectic delight. Readers will laugh at the collection of song lyrics and cartoons inspired by the great Pluto-versy…smile at the photocopied letters from elementary-school children."

Seattle Times - Fred Burtz

"For young and old alike…a riveting book that makes you really care about Pluto."

Sacramento Book Review

"Wonderfully entertaining. The Pluto Files is positively transporting. Out of this world."

Christian Science Monitor - Heller McAlpin

From Pluto's 1930 discovery to the emotional reaction worldwide to its demotion from planetary status, astrophysicist, science popularizer and Hayden Planetarium director deGrasse Tyson (Death by Black Hole) offers a lighthearted look at the planet. Astronomical calculations predicted the presence of a "mysterious and distant Planet X" decades before Clyde Tombaugh spotted it in 1930. DeGrasse Tyson speculates on why straw polls show Pluto to be the favorite planet of American elementary school students (for one, "Pluto sounds the most like a punch line to a hilarious joke"). But Pluto's rock and ice composition, backward rotation and problematic orbit raised suspicions. As the question of Pluto's nature was being debated by scientists, the newly constructed Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Hayden Planetarium quietly but definitively relegated Pluto to the icy realm of Kuiper Belt Objects (cold, distant leftovers from the solar system's formation), raising a firestorm. Astronomers discussed and argued and finally created an official definition of what makes a planet. This account, if a bit Tyson-centric, presents the medicine of hard science with a sugarcoating of lightness and humor. 35 color and 10 b&w illus. (Jan.)

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Publishers Weekly

Many blame astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium director Tyson (Death by Black Hole) for the International Astronomy Union's demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet in 2006. Here, he tells his tale while exploring the history of planet classification and Americans' fervid interest in Pluto's status. At first, actor/narrator Mirron Willis's (Basketball Jones) reading is a bit slow, but he relaxes more as the story progresses to a discussion of our love affair with Pluto; he successfully gets Tyson's often tongue-and-cheek tone across to the listener. An enjoyable title on a topic having broad appeal. [Audio clip available through www.blackstoneaudio.com; the review of the Norton hc credited Tyson with "expertly relat[ing] the history and science of Pluto and its discovery," LJ12/08.-Ed.]
—Emma Duncan

Library Journal

When astronomers stripped Pluto of its “planethood” in 2006, it set off a surprisingly passionate debate. As director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, Neil deGrasse Tyson was at the center of the dispute, and he tells his side of the story with wit and humility in this audio. Mirron Willis doesn't sound entirely comfortable with the scientific language (despite a number of credits as an actor and narrator in sci-fi), but he does a fine job conveying the audiobook's humor, including the letters from children who are angry that Tyson helped to demote their favorite planet. It's unclear why the publisher elected to include the glossary and the other appendices that don't work well in audio, except perhaps to pad out a very brief recording. D.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2009 - AudioFile