PLUTO

by Nilson Soares - Sep´2015

Pluto was discovered in 18-Feb-1930 by the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh, and was originally considered the ninth planet from the Sun. Its name was proposed by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Oxford, England, who was interested in classical mythology. The new planet was officially named as Pluto, the “God of Underground”, in 24-Mar-1930.

In the same year of Pluto's discovery, Walt Disney created one of the most charismatic character of all times: The Mickey Mouse’s pet. A year later, in 1931, Disney named the sympathetic dog with the new planet's name.

Until 2005 Pluto was the most distant planet of the Solar System. Its distance from the Earth is almost 6 billion Km or 4.3 hour-light, which means that its pallid light takes 4 hours and 20 minutes to reach us.

In January 2005 planet Eris was discovered. Since it is larger than Pluto, the astronomers started to reconsider the classification of a planet. As a result, in August 2006 a new class of minor planets was created, so Pluto, Eris and Ceres (the largest asteroid between Mars and Jupiter) became known as "dwarf-planets".

Pluto is 1,100 kilometers smaller than our natural satellite, the Moon. Pluto's diameter is 2,370 Km while Moon's is 3,470 Km.

In 2006, same year in which Pluto was demoted as a dwarf-planet, NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft with the mission to explore the distant and unknown objects at the border of Solar System and unveil its mysteries.

New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever created. After its launching it reached the Moon’s orbit in just 9 hours. The Apollo 11 mission took 3 days to reach our natural Satellite in 1969.

Even at a fantastic speed of 75,600 Km/h, the probe needed 9 ½ years to cross the 5.9 billion Km of distance between Earth and Pluto.

The spacecraft operates with less power than a pair of 100-watt light bulbs and it costs about US$720 million to NASA.

Besides an arsenal of scientific instruments, the mission is carrying the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto. He requested that his ashes be sent to space before dying in 1997.

It also carries a Compact-Disc media recorded with 434,738 names of person who supported the mission when it was announced. I am one of them! And now I’m part of its history!

Pluto is a fascinating icy world which keeps the secrets of Solar System formation, just like a huge and very ancient fossil. That’s why Pluto is interesting for the scientists. This high resolution image is currently the Pluto’s most detailed picture taken by New Horizons probe during its maximum approximation in 14-July-2015.

Pluto has 5 satellites: The largest moon is Charon. It was discovered in 1978, almost 50 years after Pluto’s discovery. Nix and Hydra were discovered in 2006, same year of New Horizons’ launching. Kerberos and Styx were discovered by Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 and 2012 respectively, while looking for potential hazards for the New Horizons probe.

New Horizons spacecraft was able to show us Pluto’s surface from a distance of 1,800 kilometers.

The smooth and bright region across the center of Pluto was named Sputnik Planum and is dominated by icy terrain.

Evolution of an image: From a pixelated point of light to the sharpest high-res photo ever taken from this distant world. And much more is coming! We’ll take about 16 months to receive all data and images New Horizons is sending back!

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