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The solar system most of us grew up with included nine planets, with Mercury closest to the sun and Pluto at the outer edge. Then, in 2005, astronomer Mike Brown made the discovery of a lifetime: a tenth planet, Eris, slightly bigger than Pluto. But instead of its resulting in one more planet... read more

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  • “Classification is one of the first processes in understanding something scientifically.”
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  • The seven days of the week are even named after the seven original planets.
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  • Woden was the carrier of the dead—a Germanic grim reaper—fulfilling one of Mercury’s less well known jobs. Thor was the Norse king of the gods, like Jupiter, and Friday is the day of Venus in the guise of the Norse Frigga, the goddess of married love.
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  • “Martha visits every Monday and just stays until noon. Period.”
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  • There are rules, decided upon by the International Astronomical Union, for the naming of most everything in the sky. Craters on Mercury have to be named for deceased poets; moon of Uranus are named for Shakespearean characters. For this type of object in the Kuiper belt, the rules said that the name had to be a creation deity in a mythology.
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  • Pluto is not a planet not because it fails to meet the three-headed criteria laid out by the IAU. Pluto is not a planet because the criteria were written to try to explain the concept that Pluto is not a planet.
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  • the largest dwarf planet, temporarily nicknamed Xena, cause of the largest astronomical showdown in generations and the killer of Pluto, would henceforth be called Eris, after the Greek goddess of discord and strife.
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  • Planet Ceres, which had held on for a century, along with all of its smaller neighbors, was demoted, with no outcry from the citizens of planet Earth.
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  • Copernicus wrote down what is perhaps the most startling proposition of all time: “The motions which seem to us proper to the Sun do not arise from it, but from the Earth and our orb, with which we revolve around the sun like any other planet.”
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  • Mean Very Evil Men Just Shortened Up Nature.
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  •   1 What Is a Planet?
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Organizations edit see section history

  • IAU: Group that controls all naming and other major components in the field of astronomy.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Prologue: Pluto Dies
1. What is a Planet?
2. A Millenia of Planets
3. The Moon is my Nemisis
4. The Second-best Thing
5. An Icy Nail
6. The End of the Solar System
7. Raining = Pouring
8. Lilah, An Intermission
9. The Tenth Planet
10. Stealing the Show
11. Planet or Not
12. Mean Very Evil Men
13. Discord and Strife
Epilogue: Jupiter Moves
Acknowledgements
Index

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Mike Brown (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Country: United States
Publication Date: 2010
ISBN: 978-0385531085
Page Count: 288

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