Love is easy to describe and, as is known, difficult to define, but since its dramatic discovery in 1930, Pluto has seen that it captured the love of many people all over the world. Perhaps this is because Pluto is a small and very distant world, lost in the incredible, cold darkness of the most distant region of our Solar system, where our Sun appears in its dark sky, just like another bright star floating in a fascinating sea. Starlight . The mystery captures, and Pluto remained a tempting and fascinating mystery for almost a century, being so far away from the weak fire of our distant Star. July 14, 2015, after a ten-year, very treacherous and difficult journey through our solar system, NASA New Horizons the spacecraft successfully made its historic closest approach to Pluto, about 7,750 miles above its long hidden surface — about the same distance as New York to Mumbai, India — making it the first space mission in the world to explore the world so far from our planet.
Humanity has long loved Pluto - but now, for the first time, it can be studied closely and personally, revealing its intriguing features to its many distant admirers far, long away on a little blue water planet, much closer to the sun.
“I am very pleased with this latest achievement of NASA, another first one that once again demonstrates how the United States is leading the world in space. New Horizons is the latest in a long series of scientific advances from NASA, including several missions involved in the orbit and exploration of the surface of Mars in the run-up to human visits are still to come; great Kepler the mission to identify planets like Earth around stars other than ours; and DSCOVR a satellite that will soon display images of the entire Earth in near real time from a point of view of a million miles. As New Horizons completes the span of Pluto and continues to delve into Kuiper belt, NASA's multidimensional journey continues, ”said Dr. John Holden on July 14, 2015. Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL). Dr. Holden is Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Policy Office of Science and Technology at the White House. JHUAPL located in laurel, maryland.
Kuiper Belt is a frigid, muddy and mysterious home far beyond the limits of the giant Neptune — the amazing and beautiful blue gas planet, that is, the eighth largest planet from our Sun. Astronomers first begin to explore distant Kuiper belt, where the glittering multitude of alien, frozen worlds makes a trembling mistake around our Sun. Pluto - significantly large Kuiper Belt , and it was - at first glance - classified as the tenth major planet of our Star after its discovery in 1930. However, astronomers ’growing awareness that this beloved, frozen little“ eccentric ”is only one of several large ice bodies living in Kuiper Belt caused International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally defining the term “planet” in 2006 — and poor Pluto lost its high classification as the ninth largest planet in our Sun family. Now, recently reclassified as simple dwarf planet Pluto, dismissive, remains a small world of charm, affection and debate among members of the scientific community of planetariums who are trying to determine exactly how the "planet" should be defined.
"Exploration of Pluto and its moons New Horizons presents a capstone event for up to 50 years of NASA and United States planetary research. This mission completed the initial survey of our solar system — a remarkable achievement that no other nation can match, ”said Administration President Charles Bolden, President of NASA, on July 14, 2015.
Pluto history
The history of Pluto began less than a century ago, when the young farmer's son from Kansas, astronomer Clyde Tombog (1906-1997), was faced with the difficult task of finding the elusive, mysterious and, possibly, non-existential Planet X. According to the theory Planet X is a secretive giant planet that lies somewhere in the cold dark beyond the orbit of Neptune. Using a telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombo actually discovered a dim spotlight that seemed extremely fascinating, icy "strange" Pluto, and not Planet X.
Like the others Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) It is believed that Pluto is mainly composed of a mixture of ice and rock. It is a really small world, only about 1/6 of the mass of the Earth and about 1/3 of its volume. Pluto also shows a highly inclined and eccentric orbit, carrying it from 20 to 49 Astronomical units (AU) from our sun. One AU equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun about 93,000,000 miles. Pluto periodically travels to our Star at a closer distance than Neptune! Fortunately, the orbital resonance with Neptune effectively surpassed the two worlds from colliding with each other.
Kuiper Belt - sometimes called Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt - This is a very remote region of our solar system, surrounding our sun outside the realm of the majestic giant planets. belt extends from the orbit of Neptune to about 50 AU. Neptune's average distance from our Star is about 30.1 AU --him perihelion (when it is closest to our Sun) is 29.8 AU , And his aphelion (when it is farthest from our Sun) is 30.4 AU.
Pluto itself has five famous moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx. Charon is by far the largest of the moon quintets, and it has a diameter of about half the size of Pluto. Some astronomers believe that Pluto and Charon actually constitute the binary system, because the barycenter of their orbits does not fall into either of the two worlds.
The demobilized, small world, which is Pluto, was named after the Roman god of the underworld. Charon was discovered in 1978 by American astronomer James Christie. Some astronomers believe that Charon is a large piece that escaped from Pluto as a result of a monumental collision between Pluto and some unidentified object that grew through Kuiper Belt not far from Pluto.
For most of the 20th century, it was believed that Pluto was a lonely little world where it dwells in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, far from the delightful light and comforting heat of our Star. However in 1992 KBO (except for Pluto and Charon), and astronomers came to the realization that Pluto is not so far from the crazy crowd of other similar objects inhabiting the Kuiper belt, as originally thought. Since 1992, many other frigid, frozen worlds similar to Pluto have been discovered - also displaying eccentric orbits. The most important of them is scattered disk object named Eris which was discovered in 2005. Eris slightly more massive than Pluto. The realization that Pluto is one of many CCD rejected in his demotion and reclassification. However, there are astronomers who oppose this slide, arguing that Pluto should have retained its original design as the ninth largest planet from our Sun, and another similar dwarf planets which were recently discovered should also be added to the list of major planets along with Pluto.
New Horizons The mission will help astronomers to understand those distant, mysterious worlds that are pursuing the edge of our solar system. New Horizons makes the first exploration of Pluto and its satellites, traveling deeper into the mysterious, distant Kuiper Belt - which is actually a relic of our ancient system of the solar system.
New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006. In February 2007, he conducted a blow to Jupiter for heavy strike and scientific research, and he conducts a five-month reconnaissance flight survey of Pluto and its satellites. As part of New Horizons it is expected that the spacecraft may Kuiper Belt observe one or two of the ice ancient worlds that live deep in the deep freeze of this dark, frigid region.
The National Academy of Sciences has identified Kuiper Belt for the highest priority for exploring the solar system. Generally, New Horizons seeks to understand how Pluto and its moons should be classified as inhabitants of our family of the Sun - one category of inhabitants of the Solar System consists of internal, rocky terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), and the second category consists of external giant gas planets (Jupiter , Saturn, Uranus and Neptune).
Pluto and Charon are now classified as members of a third category of objects, called ice dwarfs They have solid surfaces, but, unlike rocky terrestrial planets, most of their mass is ice material.
A close and personal look at these icy ones dwarf worlds from a spacecraft promise to reveal an incredible and very ancient history of the origin and external borders of our solar system. New Horizons will also study - for the first time - how ice dwarfs how Pluto and related objects evolved over time.
Ice mountains and plains, a mountain on a lawn and a mesmerizing Misshapen moon
The first thoughtful look in Pluto and its moon hints at wonders that have yet to be discovered in this distant, dark and frigid country of our external system of the solar system. The mountains cut from the ice on Pluto, and the new and very revealing view of the young surface of its active attendant world, Charon, are among the first treasures of discoveries announced New Horizons team July 15, 2015 - just one day after the first flight of the spacecraft Pluto!
"Pluto New Horizons is a real research mission, showing why fundamental scientific research is so important. The mission was nine years old to build expectations about what we will see as close as possible to Pluto and Charon. the scientific treasure collected during these critical moments, and I can tell you that it dramatically exceeds these high expectations, ”commented Dr. John Grünsfeld on July 15, 2015 Press release by NASA. Dr. Grunsfeld is Associate Administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC
“Home Run! New Horizons already returns amazing results. The data looks absolutely great, and Pluto and Charon simply understand, ”said Dr. Alan Stern in the same Press release. Dr. Stern is the principal investigator. New Horizons at the Southwestern Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado.
One of the new large-scale images of the equatorial region, near the base of a bright figure on the surface of Pluto, shows a ridge with ice peaks protruding at an altitude of 11,000 feet above the surface of this frozen world.
The ice mountains on Pluto are believed to have formed no more than the “simple” 100 million years ago, which makes them relatively young structures in our solar system with an energy of 4.56 billion Years. This indicates that a close-up area, which covers about one percent of the surface of Pluto, can still be geologically active today.
In addition, another large-scale picture of Pluto shows a vast, valley-free plain, which may still be formed by geological processes. Like the mountains of Pluto, this plain probably does not exceed 100 million years. This frozen region is located north of the icy mountains of Pluto, near the heart-shaped center. Intriguing heart was unofficially named Tombaugh regio in honor of its discoverer Clyde Tombog. The area of the plain, which looks like frozen mud cracks on Earth, was called Sputnik planum after the first artificial satellite of the Earth. It displays a broken cracked surface consisting of irregularly shaped segments, approximately 12 miles across. Planetary scientists have proposed two possible scenarios to explain how the segments were formed. An irregular shape can be caused by a reduction in surface materials, just as it does when the dirt dries. Alternatively, they may have been formed by the convection process, in a way that was compared to how wax rises in a lava lamp.
“This is one of the youngest surfaces we have ever seen in the solar system,” commented Dr. Jeff Moore on July 15, 2015. Press release by NASA. Dr. Moore New Geology, Geophysics and Image Processing (GGI) at the NASA Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
Pluto cannot be heated by a gravitational dance with a much larger planetary body, like many ice moons that surround the four gaseous giant planets of our Sun family. Therefore, another process must generate a mountainous landscape.
“This can make us rethink what powers geological activity has in many other ice worlds,” commented on a press release on July 15, 2015 to Dr. John Spencer. Dr. Spencer GGI deputy team leader SwRI.
A new and revealing view of Charon shows a young and diverse landscape, characterized by the absence of craters. Older surfaces show more crater than younger surfaces, and Charon is almost completely devoid of craters. A strip of rocks and troughs extending for about 600 miles indicates a large-scale rupture of the Charon formation. This gap is probably the result of internal geological processes. The new picture also shows a canyon with a depth of 4 to 6 miles. In the northern polar region of Charon, there are mysterious dark signs of a surface with a diffuse boundary, which indicates a small spot or sediment on its icy surface.
The image of Charon, released on July 16, 2015, shows an additional fascinating feature - a depression with a peak in the middle, which was baptized Mountain in Moate. The image shows an area of approximately 240 miles from top to bottom, including several visible craters.
New Horizons one of the smaller members of the Pluto system was also observed. The new image of the moon Hydra shows that it has an irregular irregular shape and that it is only about 27 to 20 miles. Irregular surface of Hydra, probably covered with water ice.
Dr. Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, said on July 17, 2015 that “with a flight in the rearview mirror, the journey to Pluto lasts ten years, but the gain in science is just beginning.
