Pluto: The NASA Hubble Space Telescope

Many issues have arisen from the debate whether or not Pluto is a planet. Some astronomers say that Pluto should be classified as a “minor planet” due to its size, physical characteristics, and other factors. On the other hand, some astronomers defend Pluto’s planet status, citing several key features.

Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1930.

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.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson wrote The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet to examine why Pluto ought not to be considered a planetary body and instead a dwarf planet or Kuiper Belt Object.

My Thesis statement is Phuto was once considered to be a planet but now Pluto is the most famous dwarf planet in our solar system. Pluto is made up of ⅔ of rock and ⅓ of ice. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh on January 23, 1930. Pluto is very very cold you can't even imagine how much colder it is than Antarctic.If that happen in Earth the air would turn into snow that's how cold it would be about 230 degrees below zero Celsius. When you want to see Pluto up in the sky you can't even see Pluto with your naked eye. Pluto is very hard to see once you look in the telescope it look a little like a star even with the telescope.

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.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh and was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. This means that for almost eighty years, all of mankind knew that Pluto was a planet. The real trouble for Pluto came in 1992 when David Jewitt and Jane Luu discovered the first celestial objects in a region now called the Kuiper Belt (Weintraub, 2015). Pluto is considered one of the largest celestial objects in the belt (Redd, 2012). However, there are some objects in

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has snapped the first ever color photograph of Pluto. The image, shown below, may be a bit blurry, but you can expect more detailed images to emerge as the spacecraft gets closer to the lonely planet on the edge of the Solar System. New Horizons also caught Charon, a moon, in the photograph of Pluto.

In 1906 Percival Lowell, an American mathematician and Astronomer, initiated a research project to find the infamous “Planet X,” the possible ninth planet. Sadly, Lowell died before completing the project. However, his research captured two pictures of Pluto that no one recognized as the ninth planet. After Lowell's death, the search did not resume until the late 1920’s, when Tombaugh was entrusted with the “PLanet X” project. At the time Tombaugh was 23 and spent a year photographing the night sky and analyzing the images. On February 18th, 1930, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object in an image taken that Janurary. After this more proof was found that “Planet X” had been discovered (Williams

“Pluto” was the supposed ninth planet of our solar system, unfortunately discovered by Clide Tombaugh. The name of the newly found celestial object was chosen by a small girl from, the best nation in the world, Britain. The apparent demon worshiper chose the name Pluto, after the Roman god of the underworld. Pluto held the status of a planet until 2006 when the IAU declared it a dwarf planet. Despite the IAUs categorization of Pluto as a dwarf planet, devoted fans of “Disney”, conspiracy theorists, and malevolent Pluto-huggers alike reject the prospect.

In elementary school, I only learned about eight planets with the famous saying of, ‘My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Nachos.’ So, I was never taught to think Pluto was a planet. I saw that it wasn’t planet on the internet and just went to with the concept. However, I wonder now, why can’t Pluto be a planet? Caltech planetary scientist Mike Brown can explain why Pluto is no longer considered a planet.

Pluto was given some nicknames which are Xena and Dwarf Planet. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh on February

In addition to Pluto past research about Pluto, NASA is still researching, exploring, and studying more and more about this dwarf planet today. In 2006, the first mission to Pluto was launched by NASA. It was called New Horizons, a spacecraft that is going to the verge of the solar system. New Horizons was sent to study and take pictures of Pluto, its moon, and other worlds within the Kuiper Belt up close. The space craft is said to be about the size of a piano. It was also said that it was a nine year trip to finally reach Pluto in 2015. On July 14, 2015 New Horizons has successfully made its closest approach to Pluto. It is said that it will take 16 months to download all the data the New Horizon collected during its flyby of Pluto and its

Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of pluto, studied for his degree in astronomy from the University of Kansas while interning at Lowell Observatory during the summers. He built his own telescope in 1929 and the Observatory took notice of this and hired him on full time as a telescope operator. He began the search for “Planet X” based on the research of Percival Lowell. a few months later on February 18, 1930 saw exactly what he was looking for in photographs taken by the telescope, there was movement across the backdrop of a thousand stars. Further studying confirmed that it was indeed Planet X and the discovery was officially announced March 13th

b. Jennifer Rosenberg in her article Pluto Discovered writes, “It took a year of detailed, painstaking work, but Tombaugh did find Planet X. The discovery occurred on February 18, 1930 while Tombaugh was carefully examining a set of photographic plates created by the telescope”. Tombaugh officially announced the discovery of the ninth planet on March 13, 1930.