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The Pluto Files

Reading Time:3 minutes
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The Pluto Files

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Norton

HK$192

When is a planet not a planet? When it's Pluto, that's when. Pluto was discovered in 1930 but was stripped of its planetary status in 2006 when astronomers decreed it should be classed as one of many objects in the icy Kuiper Belt. The decision was controversial within the science world and outside it. Many scientists opposed the new classification and the debate inspired thousands of children to write letters in support of Pluto's claim to planethood.

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet is a light-hearted but factual account of the ensuing hoopla by Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the figures at the centre of the fuss. It is idiosyncratic in style and self-publicising but it succeeds in compressing the science into a witty and digestible read.

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