Book 1 Post 1

 How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is a fascinating memoir from Mike Brown, a leading astronomer and scientist responsible for Pluto's descension to a dwarf planet. Brown walks the reader through his life as a young kid learning about Pluto up to the point of a conference held to determine Pluto's fate as a planet. In the beginning of the book, Brown shares many memories of him being a child and new discoveries of stars as turning points in his life along with the evolution of astronomy and how our ideas of space changed.

I've loved looking up into the stars since I was a kid. How enormous our universe is, and paired with it, how our small and insignificant our human lives are were puzzling to me growing up. I would frequent the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco just to see the new planetarium shows they offered. Like Brown, I found myself getting older at turning points in my life as I learned more about the structure of our universe and how everything is interrelated. When I was in high school, I took a class in astrophysics at the same time I took a class about existentialism and absurdism literature - I often came home confused and worried about my future life and career that I couldn't focus on the present. 

Brown shares how his quests in astronomy have led him through many important life moments. In reading his words, I'm comforted knowing that no matter what obstacles I encounter throughout life, the human emotions we all experience are a great gift. Even if I may not accomplish something as historical as discovering the Kuiper Belt. 

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