Cannonball 2.0 - Book 1 - The Pluto Files By: Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Pluto was always the weird kid on the edge of the solar system. Small, cold, barren, with a truly odd orbit that matched no other planet in the solar system. It's position as a planet has been debated since it's discovery by an American named Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. After the discovery, Pluto became America's favorite planet. A popular Disney character even had the same name. For every schoolkid prior to 2006, Pluto was the ninth and final planet in our solar system. It did not matter how odd or how ill-fitting the title planet was. Pluto was the final one and that was that.

Within the hardcore astronomy community, the sentiment towards Pluto's status was far different. Some believed that it was a planet and that was that. Others felt it's lack of commonality with other known planets, both the terrestrial and gas giants, made it's status as a planet questionable. Pluto had moons, a definitive characteristic of a planet, but they were not that different in size. It was near an asteroid belt, now known as the Kuiper Belt. The debate over Pluto was contained in the scientific community until 2000.

In 2000, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York opened a fully renovated planetarium. There was something odd about about the new Rose Center. Pluto was reclassified with icy comets. Dr. Tyson quickly found himself at the center of a controversy few outside the astronomy community knew existed. He began to receive hate mail from people as old as 90 and as young as 7. Grade school children wrote him impassioned letters in defense of Pluto. Dr. Tyson stood his ground and argued that Pluto could not be a planet.

In 2005, new exploration tools discovered a Kuiper Belt object that was larger than Pluto, Eris. Should Eris be a planet? What happens to Pluto? In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union meet to clarify the definition of a planet. As a result of this meeting, poor Pluto was demoted. The Pluto Files is the story of Pluto's rise and fall as a planet, told by Dr. Tyson from his viewpoint at the center of the controversy. Included in the book are letters that he received during the controversy, most written by young schoolchildren. The Pluto Files was an interesting, well-written and often hilarious read. The book does not read like a scientific text, but more like a fictional story with the occasional geek speak. It was a quick read, clocking in at only 182 pages, including appendices of the various legislative actions taken in Pluto's favor.