"The Pluto Files" (Amazon.com)
We speak to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. As head of the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, Tyson found himself at the center of a firestorm of controversy in 2001 when it was noticed that the Planetarium had not grouped Pluto with other planets of the Solar System. In the years that followed, the question of “Is Pluto a planet?” occupied both scientists and non-scientists alike, leading to a historic meeting of the International Astronomical Union in August 2006, when the Union officially demoted Pluto to dwarf planet status. Neil deGrasse Tyson writes about those years, as well as the history of Pluto in his book: “The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet.”
