A review by morningtide
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown

informative slow-paced

4.5

I initially saw this book in my StoryGraph feed from someone I follow reading it, and as a person of a certain age group, I did feel offense due to my emotional attachment to Pluto and decided I may check it out just for that reason. I picked it up for a shorter non-fiction audiobook listen that I wouldn't feel too invested, but ended up being more interesting than I expected.

How I Killed Pluto is a look into the astronomy world which, like all sciences seems to have its own drama culture. The actual "controversy" surrounding Brown's studies seems so minor and so interesting at the same time, and I was surprised with how invested I got with the database information being questionably accessed and the standards of discovery and reporting. I also loved hearing about his scientific approach and compulsion to collect and graph data on.... everything in his life, including the personal.

This actually isn't the first book I've read on the debate about scienctific classification conventions (Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller and Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Carol Kaesuk Yoon - both interesting books about flora and fauna taxonomy) but this one was about space!! Besides the change in actual subject matter, it didn't shock me that classification in space is just as fraught and emotionally vested as classification on Earth. So it didn't even take half of this book to let go of my emotional grasp on Pluto — I still love it, but I get it.

Overall, this was a fun foray into space for my first time since K-12 earth sciences, which for me, did all predate Pluto's demotion. I will give up my mnemonic of "My Very Excellent Mother Served Us Nine Pizzas" and giggle at "My Very Excellent Mother Served Us Nothing." I can remember and love Pluto on its own, anyway.