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Alan Boyle

The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference Hardcover – November 1, 2009

by Alan Boyle (Author)

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In support of Pluto-the cutest and most unfairly treated planet

Pity poor Pluto: It's a planet that was discovered because of a mistake, a planet that turned out not to be a planet at all, thanks to a still-disputed decision made in 2006. And yet, Pluto is the planet best-loved by Americans, especially children, one that may have contained the building blocks of life billions of years ago and may well serve as life's last redoubt billions of years from now.

In The Case for Pluto, award-winning science writer Alan Boyle traces the tiny planet's ups and downs, its strange appeal, the reasons behind its demotion, and the reasons why it should be set back in the planetary pantheon.

Tells the compelling story of Pluto's discovery and how it became a cultural icon
Makes the case for Pluto as planet, countering the books that argue against it
Comes in a small, friendly package â just like Pluto â and features a handsome design, making it a great gift

The Case for Pluto is the must-read tale of a cosmic underdog that has captured the hearts of millions: an endearing little planet that is changing the way we see the universe beyond our backyard.

Alan Boyle is MSNBC.comâs science editor and the award-winning blogger behind Cosmic Log. Heâs been a talking head on NBCâs The Today Show and the MSNBC cable channel, holding forth on scientific subjects ranging from the chances of an asteroid Armageddon to the 3-D wizardry behind the âHarry Potterâ movies. But he writes better than he talks.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Wiley
Publication date

November 1, 2009
Dimensions

5.3 x 0.93 x 7.34 inches
ISBN-10

0470505443
ISBN-13

978-0470505441
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When the International Astronomical Union voted in 2006 to evict Pluto from the roster of planets in our solar system, little did they expect the public outcry that would arise. Boyle, an award-winning science writer and the science editor at MSNBC.com, presents the issues regarding Pluto's status, both popular and scientific, in a winning fashion. After its discovery in 1930, the icy rock formerly known as Planet X was embraced by the public imagination, partly due to its status as the oddball of the solar system; no doubt having Walt Disney name a cartoon dog after it also helped. But as astronomers learned more about the solar system and the distant Kuiper Belt at its fringes, they realized that Pluto, with its lopsided spin and strangely tilted orbit was very special indeed. Now astronomers have identified at least five dwarf planets, or mini-worlds, orbiting our Sun. When the New Horizons spacecraft reaches Pluto in 2015, we'll know more about this underdog of the solar system. Even then, the furor is bound to continue. Photos. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

* With a fresh style and a clear voice, Alan Boyle addresses The Case for Pluto. Ever since the search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter led to the discovery of the asteroid belt, the hunt for a planet at the edge of the solar system not only led to the discovery of Clyde Tombaugh's Pluto, but also to the now well-known Kuiper Belt and the lesser known Ort Cloud. Several efforts have aimed to demote Pluto to dwarf planet status, leading to one of the biggest controversies astronomy has seen since astronomers tried to capture images of stars hiding behind the sun during a solar eclipse as predicted by Einstein. A number of planet demystifiers have come to the aid of the planet degradation era, some with torches held high and some with lynch knots. The main problem is that Pluto has enjoyed popularity. Boyle puts up a good battlefront in the case for Pluto, considering every angle and leaving no scientific mind undisturbed. What the scientific community could agree upon was that Pluto was both a planet and not a planet at the same time. The solution was to reclassify, hoping to quell the problem. A must read.
—Reviewed by D. Wayne Dworsky (Sacramento / San Francisco Book Review)

Boyle, the science writer for msnbc.com, has written a charming and informative book that requires no science background. The International Astronomical Union's decision to downgrade Pluto's status from a planet is the book's jumping-off point, from which Boyle backtracks to relate the history of Pluto's discovery and naming, the discovery of its moon, its scientific features, and all the developments of its scientific study, including developments in the technology of telescopes and space missions. The personal element of the story adds spice to the narrative, with astronomers arguing over Pluto's identity and the public weighing in with their own personal attachment to Pluto as a planet. The book concludes with an appendix on what to tell your kids about planets. (Sci-Tech Book News)

When the International Astronomical Union voted in 2006 to evict Pluto from the roster of planets in our solar system, little did they expect the public outcry that would arise. Boyle, an award-winning science writer and the science editor at MSNBC.com, presents the issues regarding Pluto's status, both popular and scientific, in a winning fashion. After its discovery in 1930, the icy rock formerly known as Planet X was embraced by the public imagination, partly due to its status as ""the oddball of the solar system""; no doubt having Walt Disney name a cartoon dog after it also helped. But as astronomers learned more about the solar system and the distant Kuiper Belt at its fringes, they realized that Pluto, with its lopsided spin and strangely tilted orbit was very special indeed. Now astronomers have identified at least five dwarf planets, or ""mini-worlds,"" orbiting our Sun. When the New Horizons spacecraft reaches Pluto in 2015, we'll know more about this ""underdog of the solar system."" Even then, the furor is bound to continue. Photos. (Nov.) (Publishers Weekly, September 14, 2009)

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (November 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0470505443
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0470505441
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 0.93 x 7.34 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,097,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,244 in Astronomy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
51 ratings

About the author

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Alan Boyle

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As MSNBC.com's science editor, Alan Boyle runs a virtual curiosity shop of the physical sciences and space exploration, plus paleontology, archaeology and other ologies that strike his fancy. His primary hangout on the Web is MSNBC's Cosmic Log, established in 2002.

Alan grew up on a farm in Iowa and sorted through an ample share of B.S. during his early years. That was the perfect preparation for his journalistic career, which began with stints as an editor at newspapers in Cincinnati, Spokane and Seattle.

Since joining MSNBC.com in 1996, Alan has won awards from the National Academies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Association of Science Writers and more. He helped get an asteroid named for the late science-fiction humorist Douglas Adams, and counts the asteroid (11967) Boyle - named after his far-distant cousin Robert - as his own borrowed piece of the sky. "The Case for Pluto" is his first book.

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Top reviews from the United States

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Terrell Turner

So much information on a topic very dear to me

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

As an adult, I have a tendency to cling to childhood memories as an anchor of optimism. I had a wonderful childhood, and though it was far from perfect, my imagination kept me in my own world of wonder. Space was(and still is) my escape from the bad things that happen here. The solar system was a torrent of discovery. The small inner planets, to the huge outer planets, and then there was tiny Pluto. So far away and a bit out of place among the titans, but still a part of our solar system planetary family. When Pluto was demoted in 2006, I was crushed. Not only for nostalgic reasons, but for the kids that were gonna grow up without it in our solar system map. It would be as if it's existence didn't matter. I saw this book and made an immediate purchase. The information within satisfied all the questions and anger I felt before. This book has a depth and actually give Pluto a pioneering role in future discoveries. It also helps that in a world where it's rare to find someone who cares about the same things. Pluto drew a ton of people together in affection for an important place the should never be though of as less because of it's size.

Helpful

Laurel E. Kornfeld

This is a terrific book that explains both the science of the Pluto ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a terrific book that explains both the science of the Pluto debate and the political back and forth that motivated the highly controversial--and still rejected by many planetary scientists--demotion of Pluto by four percent of the IAU.

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Geminijk

Great book!

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2012

Verified Purchase

Alan delivers a great review of planetary debate. A really wonderful, and insightful book. No matter where you stand on the subject of Pluto's planetary status, this delivers some great facts and very informative.

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Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is a serious book with much information for thought. I expected a children's book, but am pleasantly surprised.

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VincentCarlini

Contemporary book read

Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

Interesting book, great background facts to read

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

Great book.

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GHS

Very good overview, and a case for why Pluto is significant no matter what class of planet it is!

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

Good science, good history, with all key details. Nice to see someone put the IAU decision in context. And essential reading leading up to the 2015 fly-by of New Horizons at the Pluto system - now it's not just Pluto and Charon, but 4 new moons discovered in the past few years.

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Spider Monkey

The Case for Pluto

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2011

At it's heart `The Case for Pluto' is simply a biography of a planet. This looks at the history of the planet, how it was discovered and the events surrounding that, how it's physical composition was worked out and the developments around it's designation as planet or dwarf-planet and the subsequent controversy over it's status. This is very easy to read and although a science book the ideas and terms used are easy to grasp and no complex equations or ideas are included to confuse the general reader. The modern day arguments over the planets status seem rather petty and childish and although I am sure this is an important issue for astronomers, you do wonder if they have anything else to worry about! There is a colour middle plate section with various photos of planets and moons, as well as artists impressions of Pluto and some outer edge areas of the solar system. There are also three appendices, one which looks at the IAU resolutions relating to what qualifies as a planet or not, some basic statistics about the planets in the solar system and frequently asked questions by kids. All in all this is a clear and engaging book and whilst the naming controversy still lingers, this book is best read as an account of a beloved planet in our solar system that has a rich and interesting history.

Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

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Top reviews from other countries

C. Wildervanck

Highly recommended, for several reasons

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2010

Verified Purchase

I liked this book very much for more than one reason. It gives a relatively easy-to-read overview of how Pluto was and is looked upon as a planet - or not. You really don't have to be a qualified astronomer to understand it; that's compliment one to the author. In the second place, it gives an amazing but also disconcerting insight in how it was decided that Pluto is a planet - or not. This culminated in the IAU General Assembly in 2006 where it was tried to answer the question 'planet or no planet' in a 'democratic' way, reminding me of the present (Autumn, 2010) formation of the new cabinet in the Netherlands. It's also amazing how mean and personal well-educated people can get when involved in a discussion like this, and how they try to make the facts fit the (i.e. their) conclusion.
Last but not least Boyle writes in a very entertaining, often humoristic way, which makes it a pleasure to read this book. May I be allowed to quote one joke, about the origin of the name of the planet Uranus, 'giving generations of schoolchildren a pronunciation to giggle over.' As a Dutchman, for the first time pronouncing it aloud, I'm sorry I have to confess that made me giggle for quite a wile!

Daniele Vilone

Very interesting

Reviewed in Italy on April 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

Very well written. In a few months the book will become obsolete (New Horizons is nearly at Pluto, and we know already that Pluto has two moons more), but the historic reconstruction of the studies and knowledge about Pluto and Kuiper Belt is complete and, I'd say, thrilling.

E. L. Wisty

A succinct and accessible account of the controversy behind the headlines

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2010

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Astronomy was one of my great interests as a child, but had I moved on to other interests by my late teens. The latest developments had thus passed me by when in 2006 the mass media with much hullaballoo noted the decision of the International Astronomical Union at its conference in Prague to reclassify Pluto as a "dwarf planet", reducing the list of planets from nine to eight. There was much public outcry, but as usual the story behind the headlines is more complex than what the media present.

Alan Boyle here gives us a succinct and accessible account of the controversy behind the headlines. While carrying a certain amount of sympathy for those who oppose Pluto's demotion, Boyle is no head-in-the-sand conservative opposing any change. He realises that Pluto cannot continue to be regarded in the same way it once was, with the discovery of several other objects beyond Neptune comparable in size to Pluto, yet the new IAU definitions are clearly a nonsense.

The critical point, and the one that defines the distinction between a planet and dwarf planet in the new IAU definitions, is the criterion that a planet must "[have] cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit". It doesn't take much nous to realise that such a definition is extremely fuzzy and frankly unscientific. The scientific process itself seems to have strayed from the path in this instance.

As appendices to the main text come "What to tell your kids about planets"; the full text of the various proposals made at the IAU 2006 conference in Prague; and a section with data on the eight planets and five hitherto recognised dwarf planets.

Whilst an excellent work in many ways, it's slightly odd that the book contains no mention whatsoever of another "plutoid" discovered in 2004 with the appellation "Orcus", a body of similar size to Pluto in an orbit of very similar characteristics, including the 3:2 orbital resonance with Neptune which gives orbital stability by remaining a great distance from Neptune despite the proximity of their respective orbits.

I would also have liked to have seen more discussion of the exact nature of the various categories of outer solar system objects now used: Centaurs, Neptunian Trojans, plutoids & plutinos, classical Kuiper belt objects ("cubewanos"), resonant KBOs, scattered disc objects, detached objects, Oort cloud objects and so on.

Despite such minor faults, this book has nudged me into further investigation of our current understanding of the outer solar system.

Graeme J. Simpson

Pluto - the 'Little Feller'

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2010

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

In the press last week it was announced that the makers of Trivial Pursuit had run a global quiz game online. One of the questions they asked was `Which planet travels once around the sun every 248 years whether it needs to or not'? The answer they gave was, of course, `Pluto'.

Except that it isn't a full, or `classical' planet any more and hasn't been since a meeting of the IAU (International Astronomical Union) in August 2006. At this meeting, it was reclassified as a `dwarf' planet, and placed it in the same category that includes the solar system's largest asteroid, Ceres. Hence the solar system currently numbers eight planets.

I provide this information to demonstrate two things: i) that a lot of people are still unaware that Pluto is no longer considered a `proper' planet; ii) the reprehensible standard of research/checking carried out by the makers of `Triv'.

Reading this book I was astonished to find that no satisfactory definition for a planet existed prior to the IAU conference, and this is probably still the case: many astronomers are still squabbling over the definition and indeed the status of Pluto itself.

This book traces the history of the discovery of all the planets, before focussing specifically on the discovery of Pluto in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a Kansas farm boy. Tombaugh astonishingly held no scientific degree until after the discovery was made, when a special award paid for his passage through college. Pluto existed as a hypothetical body before the discovery, but most of the suppositions about it proved to be wildly incorrect.

Author Alan Boyle then covers more wide-ranging ground - including his description of the search for further objects in the Trans-Neptunium Kuiper belt and Oort cloud (for definitions, read the book!) - before landing smack up to date with the debate over Pluto's `demotion'. The author himself doesn't pass judgement on its new status, he merely presents the scientific data for you to make up your own mind.

The book is packed with fascinating detail; Boyle has produced an engrossing read that's written in a lively, entertaining and lightly humorous style. He doesn't lay his research on too thickly and it's always pellucid even though he's tackling some fairly complex stuff at times.

It's therefore aimed at a popular, rather than academic, audience and if the intention was to reach as many people as possible, then the author has succeeded in his aims. I think this would be a fine book for an intelligent teenager with an interest in science: I know I would have loved it if I'd read it when I was 17 or 18.

S Bruce

Science brought to life. Poor old Pluto...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2010

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

You can buy T-shirts with slogans like "don't worry Pluto- I'm not a planet either". The status of Pluto, the rock formerly known as the Ninth Planet, is a lot more important to a lot more people than you'd expect. After all, it's just a rock a long way away in a weird orbit in space- whether we call it a planet or not doesn't matter, right? Well, in fact, wrong- and this book will tell you why.

Alan Boyle is a science writer for MSNBC and is clearly expert not only in the field, but in writing about science in a way that makes it interesting and brings out the drama and character, whilst putting across plenty of facts in an understandable way. At under 250 fairly small pages it's also a quick and easy read that never drags.

It's broadly in chronological order and there are twists and turns. When it comes to Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto back in 1930, it is a reverential biography- when it comes to the recent IAU summit where Pluto's status was hotly debated, it becomes a political drama.

Boyle's suggestions for why Pluto is so loved by many people, especially children, make a lot of sense. But Boyle also doesn't shy away from the question of 'does it really matter?', possibly the only question that isn't satisfactorily answered as the whole thing does begin, by the end, to seem like a waste of time...

An excellent example of a readable science book with a broad appeal. It's all well printed with some high-quality pictures and an interesting embossed hardcover, a neat little object.

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