Pluto Still a Mystery 75 Years Later

[zavvy]

<b>Pluto Still a Mystery 75 Years Later</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />It's been 75 years since the discovery of Pluto, but it remains a mystery. Perhaps in another 10 years some of its secrets will be revealed when a space probe gets close enough for a good look. <br /><br />Pluto was quickly heralded as the ninth planet in the solar system when it was spotted Feb. 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a young amateur astronomer at Lowell Observatory. It still holds that title today, if somewhat tenuously. <br /><br />"It's a misbehaved planet if you want to think about it as a planet," said Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. <br /><br />Tyson provocatively removed Pluto from his exhibit of planets five years ago, lumping it instead with a belt of comets at the edge of the solar system. <br /><br />"I still have folders of hate mail from third-graders," he said. <br /><br />Pluto was discovered in a search for a theoretical ninth planet. The 26-year-old Tombaugh was given the assignment. Had he not been so attentive, he might have missed Pluto as he stared through an eyepiece while switching back and forth between photographic images of the night sky over northern Arizona. But he believed right away the recurring speck he saw was the elusive Planet X later called Pluto. <br /><br />Generations of schoolchildren grew up memorizing solar system charts that included Pluto. But shortly after Tombaugh died in 1997, some astronomers suggested that the International Astronomical Union, a professional astronomers group, should demote the tiniest planet. <br /><br />At the time it was discovered, Pluto was the only known object beyond Neptune in the solar system. When its moon, Charon, was spotted, that seemingly confirmed Pluto's planet status. <br /><br />But astronomers also have found about 1,000 other s

 

[robnissen]

"Even more likely?" A possibility that Pluto was stripped by a black hole? Maybe. But MORE likely? Not a chance.

 

[gherreram]

The distance to Pluto is so great tha it took several years to the Voyager to reach it. I hope that the Hubble telescope may solve some of the riddles arround this distant planet.<br />Further more it seems that a new planet has been discovered beyond Pluto and has been named Sedna

 

[CalliArcale]

A few really minor nits....<br /><br />Neither Voyager 1 or 2 ever flew past Pluto. The mission originally called for a grand tour of all of the outer solar system planets, including Pluto, but that was nixed due to funding constraints, and the launch date slipped. At launch time, the Voyager mission was officially only aimed at Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 1 was made to encounter Saturn in such a way that it was propelled out of the plane of the ecliptic, giving it a marvellous view from above Saturn and making some interesting studies of the heliosphere possible. By then, the Voyager mission had been so successful that the team was able to convince Congress to fund an extended mission, and they arranged for Voyager 2's flyby of Saturn to propel it to Uranus, and then to Neptune. But because of the launch date slip, a Pluto flyby was no longer an option. However, the mission did get extended again; it is now the Interstellar Mission. Both spacecraft are searching for the heliopause, the edge of the sun's influence.<br /><br />Soon, the New Horizons spacecraft will launch. If successful, it will be the first spacecraft ever to encounter Pluto.<br /><br />Both Voyagers are now more distant from the Sun than Pluto is. Pluto's perihelion is within the orbit of Neptune. The Grand Tour, from Jupiter to Neptune, finished in 1989. Both spacecraft launched in 1977. So it took twelve years for Voyager 2 to reach Neptune.<br /><br />Voyager is my favorite mission, and has been ever since I was a little girl. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> Their website is here: Voyager: the Interstellar Mission<br /><br />By the way, New Horizons (website) will take only nine years to reach Pluto. (The launch window opens on January 11, 2006, and the planned Pluto encounter will be in July of 2015.) But its trajectory is much more direct than that of the Voyagers. It will st <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>