Planet

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.

As mentioned earlier, Pluto has a rather unusual orbit. Pluto, while it is the furthest planet from the sun, for twenty years during its two-hundred and forty nine year orbit, it is actually the eighth planet, crossing over Neptune’s orbit. Regardless of the fact that the orbits of the two planets cross, their orbits will not allow for them to ever collide. This is mainly due to Pluto’s orbiting not staying in the elliptic plane. Because of its unusual orbit, Pluto travels above and below Neptune as the cross, avoiding collision. What also allows these two bodies to cross paths and avoid impact is that when Pluto is at one side of the sun, Neptune is at the other. This is a result of Pluto taking three times as long to make one orbit around the sun in comparison to Neptune.

The discussion about Pluto’s status in our solar system is still in question. The definition of a planet is changing as society advances and as time passes. We used to believe that Pluto was a planet which orbits the sun, but in a weird way since it’s orbit is quite odd compared to other planets in our solar system. Pluto is different such that, it has five moons and crosses Neptune’s orbit. Not only does it do that, it is quite small in contrast to the other celestial body in our solar system. As society advances, we question the definition of a planet and Pluto’s status in our solar system. Our crave for knowledge and curiosity about what’s around us motivates us to explore the unknown. Our desire to learn more is due to the fact that people

Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s dwarf book is much like Pluto: It’s got plenty of interesting facts however it is mostly appreciated for the illustrations. Dr. Tyson’s new book, the publication is a space nonfiction of Pluto’s fall from planethood. Dr. Tyson wrote this book to explore the reasons why Pluto was demoted from the status of being a planet and all of the history behind the discovery. Also, due to his vast interest in Astronomy, Dr.Tyson was influenced to write The Pluto Files.

Outer space is a realm of new discoveries and possibilities. There is one particular planet in our solar system that is brimming with these possibilities. However, for nine years it has not actually been considered a planet. The “dwarf planet”, Pluto, has been overlooked and misrepresented in astronomy and planetary science. Since being demoted from planet status to dwarf planet status, little Pluto has raised some big questions about what defines a planet and what does not. In this paper, I will attempt to persuade you that Pluto should be promoted back to its original planet status. First, I will give you a brief history of Pluto, from its discovery to what prompted its reclassification. Next, I will explain the definition of a planet as given by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the definition’s flaws. Finally, I will discuss the recent discoveries of the New Horizons mission and how these new discoveries should lead to the reclassification of Pluto to its original planet status.

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

Once, Pluto was considered the ninth and most distant planet from our sun. Pluto was discovered by an American astronomer name Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. But before being discovered, an American astronomer name Percival Lowell was actually the first to caught hints of Pluto’s existence in 1905. He suggested that there was another world’s gravity that was tugging at the two planets, Neptune and Uranus, from beyond. It turns out that there was another planet, the smallest and ninth planet from the sun, Pluto. The now dwarf planet was named by an 11 year old girl from Oxford, England whose name was Venetia Katharine Douglas Phair or Venetia Burney. The astronomer did predict the planet’s location in 1915, but unfortunately he died without finding

Researchers say it is unusual to have contrasting bright and dark surfaces on objects in our Solar System, reflecting the fact that Pluto is far more complex than previously thought.

Known as a dwarf planet, Pluto is in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first discovered Kuiper belt object.

Not only are Pluto and the other eight planets similar, they are also different in multiple ways. After all, Wilson A. Bentley once said: “No two snowflakes are alike.” As most, if not all, people know, planets have an orbit. However, Pluto’s orbit is a little different and unusual compared to the orbit of the other eight planets. Although Pluto takes longer than the other planets to one orbit around the sun (248 earth years), the main difference is that Pluto’s orbit doesn’t lie in the same plane as the eight planets, but is inclined at an angle of 17 degrees. Not only that, but its orbit is more elliptical, or oval-shaped, than others. This causes Pluto to sometimes passes inside the orbit of Neptune. In paragraph 3, it mentioned that

According to In 1978, Charon Pluto’s largest moon was discovered. With the discovery of Charon, we could observe gravitational effect allowing for the determination of pluto’s mass. Than in 1985 and the following five years Pluto and Charon entered a period in which they eclipsed one another every few days allowing for the analysis of brightness variations this allowed for accurate calculation of size, mass, and density of both Charon and Pluto.

The approach to the Pluto system over the last few days has yielded previously unexcelled images of the planet, as well as its moon, Charon (pronounced equally as “Sharon” or “Karen”). But Stern promised the next few days will bring forth much better photos, with ten times the resolution of previous images.

On July 14th, the New Horizons NASA space probe flew past Pluto’s surface, and began taking pictures, and sending them back to Earth. Before these pictures, scientists weren’t even sure about the color or shape of Pluto, but now there is physical proof. Some parts of pluto have lots of craters, and are darker than other spots, and that shows extreme age of the dwarf planet. The pictures also showed mountains, which are most likely made of ice, because ice is as hard as granite on Pluto because of the cold conditions of about -390 degrees Fahrenheit.

Additionally, Pluto also has its own composition, structure, orbit, rotation, and as well as its own moon. Similar to Earth, Pluto also has an atmospheric and a chemical composition. Its atmospheric composition contains methane and nitrogen. Pluto’s atmosphere is said to extend as far as 1,000 miles above its surface. Its chemical composition consists of a mixture of 70% rock 30% water ice. As for Pluto’s structure, it is said that the dwarf planet has a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of water ice, with ices such as methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen ice that is coating the surface. The dwarf planet’s diameter of 1,473 miles is said to be about two- third of our moon. Its rotation is different from Earth; it spins backward, from east

Internal Summary/Preview: After discussing the discovery of “Planet X” through the beliefs of Percival Lowell and the actual finding done by Clyde Tombaugh, we will shift to discussing how “Planet X” got the name Pluto.