On the August 24th Anniversary of Pluto Demotion Day, Children's Author Defends Pluto's Planethood
The Californer/10206001

SAN FRANCISCO - Californer -- Sixteen years ago this August 24, the world was shocked to learn that a group of astronomers had downgraded planet Pluto to a dwarf planet. Author, screenwriter, and Pluto expert K.J. Field, who recently published the children's space book My First Book of Dwarf Planets, says the decision to demote Pluto to a dwarf planet had a lasting impact on the public. Field, who represents the former ninth planet on Twitter as the 'voice of Pluto' (@Plutoliveshere), says people are still outraged and confused by Pluto's demotion. But, she stresses, the former planet has completely redeemed itself.

Field understands the controversy of Pluto's demotion well. She recently launched My First Book of Dwarf Planets, the first in a line of space books for kids dedicated to Pluto. "Pluto is the underdog planet," she says, "the disrespected little guy people have known since childhood. Everybody wants to root for Pluto." Field explains that the International Astronomical Union's 2006 vote to strip Pluto of planet status was met with criticism by lay people and scientists alike. It didn't help that the small group of scientists who made the decision ended up assigning the term 'dwarf planet' to a space object they said wasn't really a planet at all.

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But it isn't just public favor and sentimentality that Pluto has going for it. "When NASA sent a spacecraft past Pluto on July 14, 2015, we got to see exactly how planetary Pluto really is," Field explains. The photos NASA's New Horizons sent back to Earth revealed a little world with blue skies like our planet, mountains as tall as the Rockies, ice volcanoes, atmosphere, weather, an underground ocean, and more.

"In many ways, Pluto turned out to be more interesting and complex than Mars," Field says. "Little Pluto surprised everybody in a very big way." Field believes that the planetary features NASA discovered on Pluto are really the best defense for Pluto's planethood. "I think most people who have a chance to learn how fascinating and complex Pluto is come around to the idea that dwarf planets are really planets after all," she says.

My First Book of Dwarf Planets is available now in paperback and on kindle at https://www.amazon.com/My-First-Book-Dwarf-Planets/dp/1955815038. More space books, including a rhyming book about the dwarf planets for young readers, are scheduled to be released shortly. For more information, join the author's mailing list at www.theplutodiaries.com/plutoshinepress and follow the author on Twitter @Plutoliveshere.

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Contact:

Kathleen Field

Email: press@theplutodiaries.com

Phone: 650-550-8396

Website: www.theplutodiaries.com