Book Log 2006 #35: The Planets by Dava Sobel

Mixing astronomy with mythology, art, music, and history, this book gives a body-by-body account of the solar system, including not only the planets by also the sun and the Moon. It's not an unusual approach for Sobel - both Longitude and Galileo's Daughter take a more literary approach to scientific subjects - and it works pretty well here, though I would have appreciated a bit more heft.

Of course, future editions will be able to do that now that we have three new planets to contend with. As you've likely heard, a panel of the International Astronomers Union has added Ceres, Charon, and a tenth planet nicknamed Xena to the planetary rolls. They've apparently part of a new subclass of planets called plutons (Pluto, as you might guess from the name, is one as well). And, given the definition they've devised to determine if a body is a planet, the list may grow to over 100 planets. There are apparently 53 known bodies in the solar system that meet the panel's planetary definition.

I'm not sure I buy this, but not being an astronomer I may just be reacting to change (I also didn't like it when Pluto got cut, so more credence to that theory). But I think part of it, too, is that I dislike the idea that planets are just random hunks of rock. Planets, to me, are bodies of color - our blue planet, Mars as the red planet and the vibrant hues of Jupiter, and the cool blues and greens of Neptune and Uranus. I also don't like the idea of planets that are smaller than our Moon. Call me terracentric.