XXXXX
"Mercury may be a burnout case, and Mars isn't what he used to be. Venus is a hottie, but she'll make your life hell. With Saturn, it's all about the rings and the bling. Jupiter takes himself waaaaay too seriously. Uranus won't stop with the off-color puns, while Neptune's jokes will leave you cold. But Pluto? Now, that's one funny planet!"
The above comes from this extremely interesting book by Alan Boyle. Boyle is science editor for MSNBC dot com.
As you probably can deduce from above, this book is about what was historically the ninth planet of our solar system: Pluto. Boyle goes into the history of Pluto's discovery (I never thought a space object's history could be so interesting!) and then goes into the politics of Pluto's reclassification. And don't worry! All the critical science is well-presented and easy to understand. (Note that the word "plutoed," found in this review's title, is an actual newly-coined word meaning demoted or devalued.)
From here, Boyle gives us a brief intermission in a chapter entitled "The Lighter Side of Pluto." Boyle presents David Letterman's joke in this chapter, a joke that he said after a historic conference in
Prague:
"Today Pluto packed up and moved out. It said it is now going to spend more time with the family. Even sadder, it hung out around Saturn all day trying to get a job as a moon."
He then resumes his more serious discussion with such chapters entitled "The Great Planet Debate" (that is, what exactly is a planet?) and "Alien Plutos."
The book's final chapter title is the same as the book's title: "The Case for Pluto." After presenting his case, he tells us in the last sentence of this chapter:
"So don't count Pluto out yet. The case is far from closed."
Boyle tells us what this book is on a deeper level:
"It's a case study that shows how politics and personalities can affect the scientific process, and how the scientific process can in turn affect popular culture."
As an added bonus, you'll also learn what Santa has in common with the Easter bunny!
Peppered throughout this book are interesting black and white photographs. My favourite is the frontispiece that shows "Pluto defenders" carrying signs saying "Protest for Pluto" and "Size Doesn't Matter." Also included in the middle of the book are over ten beautiful color photos.
Finally, Boyle tells us everything about Pluto. However, he forgot one thing. The chemical element "plutonium" (atomic number 94) was named in honour of Pluto.
In conclusion, this is an extremely well-written book that honours the one-time planet Pluto. {Today, you can think of Pluto as not being the "ninth of nine" of our solar system planets (that is, eight is enough) but "it's the first of many."} I'd like to leave you with these comparison statistics of Earth and Pluto:
1. Pluto is about 500 times less massive than the Earth.
2. Pluto is about 5.5 times smaller in diameter than the Earth.
3. Pluto is 2.75 times less dense (on average) than the Earth.
4. Pluto is 40 times more distant (on average) from the sun than the Earth.
5. Pluto's day is about 6.5 Earth days.
6. Pluto's year is about 250 Earth years.
7. Pluto has 4 moons while the Earth has one.
(first published 2010; acknowledgements; 15 chapters; main narrative 205 pages; 3 appendices; notes; bibliography; credits; index)
<<Stephen Pletko, London, Ontario, Canada>>
XXXXX
