Astronomer Michael Brown: ‘I killed Pluto. Now I’m searching for Planet 9’

Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd and astronomer Michael Brown LIVE at 12:15 p.m. CDT (17:15 UTC). Click here for a ‘notify me’ button.

Michael E. Brown is a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. His 2012 book is called How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.

Brown helped discover our solar system’s Kuiper Belt, which is similar to the asteroid belt, but contains up to 200 times more material.

In early 2016, Brown and a colleague – Konstantin Batygin, also at Caltech – described how the similar orbits of six small bodies in the outer solar system could be explained by another major planet in our solar system. They call it Planet Nine. And they’re still hoping to find it.

Bottom line: Cool astronomy livestream on Monday, July 14! EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd will be talking with astronomer Michael Brown, who calls himself “the man who killed Pluto.”