The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference

281 Pages·2009·1.55 MB·English

by  Alan Boyle

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THE CASE FOR
PLUTO
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Al Tombaugh (foreground) and his wife, Cherylee Tombaugh (to his
right), were among the Pluto defenders who gathered at New Mexico
State University a week after the planet’s reclassifi cation by the
International Astronomical Union. Al Tombaugh is the son of the late
Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.
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THE CASE FOR
PLUTO
How a Little Planet Made a Big
Difference
AL AN BOYLE
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2010 by Alan Boyle. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Boyle, Alan, date.
The case for Pluto: how a little planet made a big difference/Alan Boyle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-50544-1 (cloth)
1. Pluto (Dwarf planet) 2. Solar system. I. Title.
QB701.B69 2009
523.49'22—dc22
2009015961
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To Tonia, my star
All that I know
Of a certain star
Is, it can throw
(Like the angled spar)
Now a dart of red,
Now a dart of blue;
Till my friends have said
They would fain see, too,
My star that dartles the red and the blue!
Then it stops like a bird; like a fl ower hangs furled:
They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.
What matter to me if their star is a world?
Mine has opened its soul to me, therefore I love it.
—Robert Browning, “My Star”
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ACPOPENNTDEIXN ATS
Title
Acknowledgments ix
1 The Planet in the Cornfi eld 1
2 Fellow Wanderers 13
3 The Search for Planet X 27
4 Pluto and Its Little Pals 43
5 The Meaning of a Moon 53
6 There Goes the Neighborhood 62
7 Not Yet Explored 81
8 Betting on the Tenth Planet 96
9 The Battle of Prague 114
10 The Lighter Side of Pluto 134
11 The Great Planet Debate 148
12 The Day of the Dwarfs 163
vii
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viii CONTENTS
13 Planet X Redux 176
14 Alien Plutos 186
15 The Case for Pluto 197
Appendix A. What to Tell Your Kids about Planets 206
Appendix B. The International Astronomical Union’s
Resolutions and Revisions 213
Appendix C. Planetary Vital Statistics 219
Notes 224
Selected Bibliography 244
Credits 250
Index 251
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