New Horizon Research Paper

The mission called the New Horizons created a spacecraft, which is nuclear-powered and had the capability of gathering 10 times the data for scientific research. Another factor that led to the New Horizons mission to be the winner is that it only costed $250 million dollars. The New Horizons mission sent a spacecraft on February 2, 2006 and which is expected to will flyby Pluto by the year 2015. Astronomers were able to find three Kuiper Belt objects that are significant for New Horizons mission. The principal investigator of the New Horizons, Alan Stern stated,“ Astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who wrote a paper in 1951 about smaller objects that were farther away

Astronomers now label Pluto as a “dwarf planet” because it does not meet all of the criteria to be a planet. It is also not alone in its orbit; it is part of a wide group of small-scale objects that have been detected revolving around the Sun beyond Neptune.

In the outer limits of our solar system there is a planet unlike any other, Pluto. Pluto was discovered in February of 1930 by an American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh. It is the only planet to have been discovered by an American. All though we have known of the existence of Pluto for over thirty years now, there are still many mysteries surrounding this celestial body. Being the farthest planet has made it difficult to study Pluto, Adding to the obscurity of this strange planet is that the capability to send spacecraft such distances has never been achieved. Through the wonders of science and astronomy, there are many things that can be determined, concluded, and hypothesized about this obscure planet.

This article relates to the upcoming lab because it talks about "ice volcanoes," and we will be talking about volcanoes during the next lab session. In general, volcanoes are an incredibly interesting thing to think about because they are mountains that erupt lava, hot vapor, rock fragments, etc. Ice volcanoes are an even more fascinating thing to think about because I was not aware that they even existed; the possibility that they might exist on Pluto is insane. Although the two mountains that have been seen on Pluto might not be ice volcanoes, it's still compelling to think that they might be, especially since they have "depressions similar to volcanoes found on Mars and Earth." This article does not affect me directly, but this discovery might help scientists get more of an understanding of what Pluto might look like in the future.

The lab report this week required us to research the New Horizons mission that is still going on today. We were asked to list some information about the mission, what it hopes to learn and what we’ve learned from Pluto and its surroundings thus far. Personally, I was able to watch the live briefing and seen the first photos released of the dwarf planet in July and I am anticipating the next year of information we we’ll receive. Since the closest passing we have learned numerous insights about Pluto and its moons that were previously unknown. As the world waits patiently to discover more and more as the year of data comes in, we know that this is a giant leap in planetary exploration.

It was discovered in Arizona, USA and an eleven year old girl from England won the naming contest, naming the new planet "Pluto" after the Roman god of the underworld. Astronomers are not certain, but they think that the composition is similar to Triton's with 70% rock and 30% ice. It has a low pressure atmosphere containing nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide. It is about one sixth the mass of Earth's moon and has five natural satellites, it's most famous moon being Charon. The other four moons were discovered in the 21st century, named Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. There is a spacecraft called New Horizons that has just made it to Pluto. This fairly recent discovery, however, did not even make a full revolution around the sun before it was demoted to a dwarf planet for not complying with the last of the three planet requirements: "It has cleared the neighborhood of its orbit of any other space debris." It has now been named a dwarf planet, a title given to celestial bodies what are missing just one of the three requirements to become a

Scientists knew prior to the mission Pluto’s average temperature was about 45 kelvin, which allowed it to sublimate methane and nitrogen very slowly, but they were wrong about the temperature of the upper atmosphere. It was believed as Pluto moved away from the Sun, the atmosphere would freeze and drop onto the surface; however, that does not appear to be true, “even as Pluto edged farther from the Sun, its atmospheric pressure started rising, not falling.” The mission’s results shocked the team, “Pluto’s upper atmosphere is far colder than expected;” which means its exobase is far lower than expected: 2.5 times the radius of Pluto rather than the predicted 7 or 8. The smaller exobase allows the air to be held in place far more strongly by

The New Horizons space mission taught astronomers a lot about Pluto that cannot be seen with any telescope on Earth. For example, “this fascinating world has blue skies, spinning moons, …. And it snows - but the snow is red” (“Solar System Exploration: Pluto: In Depth.”). In addition to this, astronomers also discovered that Pluto had more moons than they originally thought.

I chose Pluto for this project because it seemed like an unpopular, but interesting subject. At first, I wanted to do the whole solar system, but I figured the explanations of each planet wouldn’t do them justice, because there are so many things to say about them. Also, the paper would most likely end up being fairly longer than necessary. After further thought, I figured Pluto would be the best subject for me, considering I did not know much about the so called planet that was removed from our solar system. I had a lot of research to do on the tiny dwarf.

For many years, Pluto was considered the ninth planet in the Solar System. Unfortunately, Pluto is now labeled as a dwarf planet. Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930. This planet was named after the Roman god of the Underworld. Pluto was given some nicknames which are Xena and Dwarf Planet. This planet was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930. “ In January 2006 NASA launched the first mission to Pluto named New Horizons,” New Horizons reached Pluto in July 2015. People can live in Xena, but the oxygen will be frozen since Xena’s air is extremely cold. There is a lot more to still learn about The Dwarf Planet.

New Horizons has visited Pluto before.Pluto once considered the ninth and most distant planet from the Sun is now the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System.There is virtually no chance that Pluto has a life living on its surface.Composition is rocks,water ice, methane, carbon monoxide.Appearance’s is very icy and rocky.The color

The New Horizons mission was a groundbreaking feat for space exploration. From the building of the New Horizons spacecraft to the Pluto flyby, it has made many advancements not only in astronomy, but also engineering and physics. New Horizons was truly a spacecraft like no other, as well as the most technologically advanced spacecraft to this date.

NASA scientists are just now starting to play with the data collected by the New Horizons spacecraft on its flyby of Pluto in July. What they’ve found so far is that the dwarf planet is either currently undergoing some crazy physics freak out spell, or that their measurement models need a little testing.

New Horizons Administrator John Grunsfeld explained that now begins a 16 month stream of data, detailed observations New Horizons has recorded about the Pluto system. With untold discoveries about to be revealed “This really is the beginning,” he said.

Thesis Statement: With the advances in technology, scientist have opened the door to the discovery of Pluto,