Facts about Pluto
In 2004 the discoverers of 90377 Sedna placed an upper limit of 1,800 kilometers on its diameter, near Pluto's diameter of 2,320 kilometers.
Pluto is more than twice the diameter and a dozen times the mass of Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.
Pluto's diameter and mass were incorrectly overestimated for many decades after its discovery.
Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto, but controllers opted instead for a close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, which resulted in a trajectory incompatible with a Pluto flyby.
During the following orbit of Pluto, Neptune is half an orbit away.
Continuing advances in telescope technology allowed for further discoveries of Trans-Neptunian objects in the twenty-first century, some of comparable size to that of Pluto.
Some of the ashes of Pluto's discoverer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, are aboard the spacecraft.
When Neptune approaches Pluto from behind their gravity starts to pull on each other slightly, resulting in an interaction between their positions in orbit of the same sort that produces Trojan points.
Current estimates place Pluto's albedo as marginally less than that of Venus, which is fairly high.
The craft will benefit from a gravity assist from Jupiter, and the closest approach to Pluto will be on July 14, 2015.
The current best hypothesis is that the south pole of Pluto came out of shadow for the first time in 120 years in 1987, and extra nitrogen sublimated from a polar cap.
Others in the astronomical community considered the discovery to be the strongest argument for reclassifying Pluto as a minor planet.
Pluto's apparent magnitude is fainter than 14 m and therefore a telescope is required for observation.
Consequently, Pluto never gets closer than 30 AU to Neptune at this point in its orbit.
The high eccentricity means that part of Pluto's orbit is closer to the Sun than Neptune's.
Owing to the orbit’s inclination, Pluto's perihelion is well above (~8.0 AU) the ecliptic.
Distance and limits on telescope technology make it currently impossible to directly photograph surface details on Pluto.
Pluto would later be found on photographs dating back to March 19, 1915.
The solar wind is gradually blowing Pluto's surface into space, in the manner of a comet.
Elements 92, 93, and 94 are named uranium, neptunium, and plutonium, respectively after Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
Recent studies suggest each crossing of Pluto to inside Neptune's orbit lasts alternately for approximately thirteen and twenty years with minor variations.
The face of Pluto oriented toward Charon contains more methane ice, while the opposite face contains more nitrogen and carbon monoxide ice.
After the reclassification, Pluto was added to the list of minor planets and given the number 134340.
The surface of Pluto is remarkably heterogeneous, as evidenced by its lightcurve, maps of its surface constructed from Hubble Space Telescope observations, and periodic variations in its infrared spectra.
The International Astronomical Union officially christened Pluto's newest moons Nix (or Pluto II, the inner of the two moons, formerly P 2) and Hydra (Pluto III, the outer moon, formerly P 1), on June 21, 2006.
Pluto is too small to have the effect on Neptune's orbit that initiated the search.
On July 20, 2011 Mark R. Showalter of the SETI Institute announced the discovery of a fourth moon of Pluto, provisionally named S/2011 (134340) 1 or P4.
The history of how Pluto was discovered is intertwined with the discoveries of Neptune and Uranus.
The verb "pluto" (preterite and past participle: "plutoed") was coined in the aftermath of the decision.
Pluto is smaller than several of the natural satellites or moons in our solar system.
Museum and planetarium directors occasionally created controversy by omitting Pluto from planetary models of the solar system.
Using computer processing, observations are made in brightness factors as Pluto is eclipsed by Charon.
From its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, Pluto was considered the solar system's ninth planet.
There has been resistance amongst the astronomical community towards the reclassification, dubbed the "Great Pluto War" by some astronomers.
The name Pluto was first suggested by Venetia Burney (later Venetia Phair), an 11-year-old girl from Oxford, England.
Two additional moons of Pluto were imaged by astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope on May 15, 2005, and received provisional designations of S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2.
In 2002 another occultation of a star by Pluto was observed and analyzed by teams led by Bruno Sicardy of the Paris Observatory.
The Kuiper belt is believed to be the source for all short-period comets, and Pluto, like other Kuiper Belt objects, shares features in common with comets.
Approximately one-fifth the mass of the Earth's Moon, Pluto is composed primarily of rock and ice.
Others reject the change for sentimental reasons, citing that they have always known Pluto as a planet and will continue to do so regardless of the IAU decision.
On July 29, 2005, a Trans-Neptunian object later named Eris was announced, which on the basis of its magnitude and simple albedo considerations is assumed to be slightly larger than Pluto.
Half a Pluto orbit later, when Pluto is nearing its closest approach, it initially seems as if Neptune is about to catch up with Pluto.
In 2000 NASA cancelled the Pluto Kuiper Express mission, citing increasing costs and launch vehicle delays.
Surprisingly, the atmosphere was estimated to have a pressure of 0.3 Pa, even though Pluto was further from the Sun than in 1988, and hence should be colder and have a less dense atmosphere.
Pluto is also classified as the prototype of a family of trans-Neptunian objects.
At the larger end of this range, the inferred masses are less than 0.3 percent of Charon's mass, or 0.03 percent of Pluto's.
The best images of Pluto derive from brightness maps created from close observations of eclipses by its largest moon, Charon.
Scientific observations of Pluto will begin five months prior to closest approach and will continue for at least a month after the encounter.
Alan Stern, principal investigator with NASA's "New Horizons" mission to Pluto, has publicly derided the IAU resolution, stating that "the definition stinks…for technical reasons.
Observations were able to determine Pluto's diameter when it is at occultation with Charon, and its shape can be resolved by telescopes using adaptive optics.
Many details about Pluto remain unknown, mainly due to the fact that it has not yet been visited up close by spacecraft.
The name that was retained for the object is that of the Roman god Pluto, and it is also intended to evoke the initials of the astronomer Percival Lowell.
Pluto presents significant challenges for space craft because of its small mass and great distance from Earth.
Pluto was found to have an atmosphere from an occultation observation in 1985 (IAU Circ.
Pluto's astrological symbol resembles that of Neptune ( ), but has a circle in place of the middle prong of the trident ( ).
The Disney character Pluto, introduced in 1930, was also named in honor of the planet.
When it returns to a closer proximity to the Sun, the temperature of Pluto's solid surface will increase, causing the nitrogen ice to sublimate into gas—creating an anti-greenhouse effect.
After favorable consideration which was almost unanimous, the name Pluto was officially adopted and an announcement made on May 1, 1930.
Trans-Neptunian object (136108) 2003 EL61 (nicknamed "Santa") has two moons (one of which is nicknamed "Rudolph") and is the fourth largest TNO behind Eris, Pluto, and (136472)2005FY9 (nicknamed "Easterbunny").
Triton shares many similarities in atmospheric and geologic compositions with Pluto and is believed to be a captured Kuiper belt object.
When an object with no atmosphere occults a star, the star abruptly disappears; in the case of Pluto, the star dimmed out gradually.
New Horizons will also photograph the surfaces of Pluto and Charon.
Pluto's orbit is very unusual in comparison to the planets of the solar system.
Two additional moons of Pluto were imaged by astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope on May 15, 2005, and received provisional designations of S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2.
Some of the ashes of Pluto's discoverer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, are aboard the spacecraft.
Some omissions were intentional; the Hayden Planetarium reopened after renovation in 2000 with a model of eight planets without Pluto.
The name Pluto was first suggested by Venetia Burney (later Venetia Phair), an 11-year-old girl from Oxford, England.
Using this technique, one can measure the total average brightness of the Pluto-Charon system and track changes in brightness over time.
Pluto, also designated (134340) Pluto or 134340 Pluto, is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the solar system and the tenth largest observed body directly orbiting the Sun.
The discovery of its satellite Charon in 1978 enabled a determination of the mass of the Pluto-Charon system by application of Newton's formulation of Kepler's third law.
The images, taken from a distance of approximately 4.2 billion kilometers (2.6 billion miles), confirm the spacecraft's ability to track distant targets, critical for maneuvering toward Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects.
Pluto is shown as a planet on the Pioneer plaque, an inscription on the space probes Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, launched in the early 1970s.
In 2002, 50000 Quaoar was discovered, with a diameter of 1,280 kilometers, about half that of Pluto.
New Horizons captured its first images of Pluto in late September 2006, during a test of the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI).
The first spacecraft to visit Pluto will be NASA's New Horizons, launched on January 19, 2006.
The Pluto-Charon system is noteworthy for being the largest of the solar system's few binary systems, i.e.
There are many reasons you can't live on Pluto. One because there is no oxagen, no food, and it would take longer than I light year to get there. Even if we can, I am not going to be the one going to a dwarf planet that is made of ice. I would stay on earth and not take my chances.May 2, 2014
Pluto Facts. Pluto is the second closest dwarf planet to the Sun and from 1930 when it was discovered up until 2006, it was also considered the ninth planet of the solar system. It is also the second largest dwarf planet, with Eris being the most massive known dwarf planet.
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered. ... That definition excluded Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet.
In August 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded the status of Pluto to that of "dwarf planet." This means that from now on only the rocky worlds of the inner Solar System and the gas giants of the outer system will be designated as planets.
Facts about PlutoPluto is named after the Greek god of the underworld. ... Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006. ... Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930 by the Lowell Observatory. ... Pluto has five known moons. ... Pluto is the largest dwarf planet. ... Pluto is one third water.More items...
Lying 30 to 50 times as far from the sun as Earth, Pluto's composition bears a greater resemblance to the rocky terrestrial planets than the gas giants that are its neighbors. New Horizons revealed that the surface of the dwarf planet appears to be dominated by nitrogen ice, with methane and carbon mixed in.Feb 19, 2016
Pluto orbits beyond the orbit of Neptune (usually). It is much smaller than any of the official planets and now classified as a "dwarf planet". Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton).
When Pluto is closer to the Sun in its orbit, the warmth from the Sun heats up the frozen ices of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide on Pluto's surface. These ices vaporize and form a temporary atmosphere. When Pluto moves farther from the Sun, the atmosphere freezes and falls back onto Pluto's surface.
Does Pluto Have Storms? ... Instead of its moon Charon orbiting it, Pluto and Charon are both orbiting a center of gravity in between them. Pluto doesn't have the sweeping, impressive storms of Jupiter, but it does have windstorms that redistribute the ice covering its surface.Apr 25, 2017
Pluto is very cold! The temperature on Pluto ranges from -387 to -369 Fahrenheit (-233 to -223 Celsius) For comparison, the coldest place on Earth, which can reach -126 Fahrenheit, would seem quite warm compared to Pluto. Many astronomers think that the surface of Pluto is covered with frost.