The Discovery Of Pluto And Its Characteristics, Atmospheric Conditions, Path Of Movement, And Personality

Pluto is unlike the other planets in that it has an icy surface instead of a rocky surface, like the inner 4 (terrestrial) planets, or a deep atmosphere, like the next 4 (gas giant) planets.

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.

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.

As we spoke about in class Pluto does not really fit into the categories of being a planet, this was one of the major arguments as to why Pluto should not be considered our nineth planet anymore. I believe that it is interesting that some people were trying to then create a classification specifically for Pluto. However, this obviously did not come to be as there must be more than one of something in order for it

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

Pluto by far was the least massive planet, with less than 5 percent of the mass of Mercury, the solar system’s next smallest planet. The orbit of Pluto is very flat from a perfect circle. In fact, Pluto spends 20 years of its 248 year orbit closer to Neptune than to the Sun. Pluto’s orbit is not only oblong, it tips more than 17 degrees from the plane of the solar system, a full of 10 degrees more than Mercury’s orbit.

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

Scientists of the New Horizons mission have found Pluto to be 1,473 miles in diameter, which is larger than many prior estimates. Pluto’s size means that its density is slightly lower and the fraction of ice in its interior is slightly higher. Also, the lowest layer of Pluto’s atmosphere is shallower. They were able to confirm that Pluto’s largest moon, Cheron is 751 miles across as well as the smaller moons Nix is estimated to be about 20 miles across, while Hydra is roughly 30 miles across. Pluto’s even smaller moons, Kerberos and Styx will be determined in later months when the data is transferred to

Pluto is beautiful. Whatever its status: planet or not, New Horizons’ recent flight by the littlest “planet” confirmed that the dwarf has a lot of “heart”; and over the next 16 months, images will pour in from New Horizons to an expectant audience. Even the few pictures received thus far have caused “hoorays!” from scientists who have gathered more intel about Pluto than ever before.

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.

Pluto is a small planet that is very distant from the sun and extremely different from Earth. It is only 2,372 kilometers (1,474 miles) in diameter, has a retrograde (backwards/east to west) orbit, and has about one fifteenth of the gravity of Earth. So, a person who weighs 100 pounds on Earth would only weigh roughly 7 on Pluto. On Pluto, one day is about 6.39 days on Earth. Meaning within

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

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.

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