10 characteristics of PLUTO

Pluto, considered the ninth and farthest planet from the sun, is now the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system. It is also one of the largest known members of the Kuiper Belt, a shadow zone beyond the orbit of Neptune believed to be populated by hundreds of thousands of rocky and icy bodies, each of which is more than 62 miles (100 miles) across, along with 1 trillion or more comets.

American astronomer Percival Lowell first picked up hints of Pluto's existence in 1905 from strange deviations he observed in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus, suggesting that otherworldly gravity was pulling these two planets from each other. side. Lowell predicted the location of the mysterious planet in 1915, but died without finding it. Pluto was finally discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory, based on predictions by Lowell and other astronomers.

Pluto got her name from Venetia Burney from Oxford, England, aged 11, who suggested to his grandfather that the new world be named after the Roman god of the underworld. His grandfather later passed the name on to Lowell Observatory. The name also honors Percival Lowell, whose initials are the first two letters of Pluto.

Characteristics of the planet Pluto

1. In 2006, Pluto it was reclassified as a dwarf planet, a change widely regarded as a downgrade. The question of the status of Pluto's planets has generated controversy and generated debate in the scientific community and among the general public ever since. In 2017, a scientific group (including members of the New Horizon mission) proposed a new definition of planethood based on "round objects in space smaller than stars," which would make the number of planets in our solar system equal to expand from 8 to about 100.
2. Because Pluto is so far from Earth, little was known about the dwarf planet's size or surface conditions until 2015, when NASA's New Horizons space probe made a close flyby of Pluto. New Horizons showed that Pluto it has a diameter of 1,473 miles (2,370 km), less than one-fifth the diameter of Earth and only about two-thirds as wide as Earth's moon.
3. Observations of Pluto's surface by the New Horizons spacecraft revealed a variety of surface features, including mountains reaching as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters), comparable to the Rocky Mountains on Earth. While methane and nitrogen ice cover much of Pluto's surface, these materials aren't strong enough to support such enormous peaks, so scientists suspect the mountains form on top of a rock of water ice.
4. Pluto's surface is also covered in a large amount of methane ice., but New Horizons scientists have observed significant differences in the way ice reflects light across the dwarf planet's surface. The dwarf planet also possesses ice ridge terrain that appears to be a snakeskin; The astronomers detected features similar to Earth penitents, or features formed by erosion in mountainous terrain. Pluto's features are much larger; they are estimated to be 1,650 feet (500 m) tall, while features on Earth are only a few meters in size.
5. Pluto's surface is one of the coldest places in the solar system., with approximately 375 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 225 degrees Celsius). Compared to previous images, images of Pluto taken by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that the dwarf planet had apparently become redder over time, apparently due to seasonal changes.



6. Pluto may have (or may have had) a subsurface ocean, although evidence is still available on that finding. If the subsurface ocean did exist, it could have greatly affected Pluto's history. For example, the scientists found that the Sputnik Planitia zone redirected Pluto's orientation due to the amount of ice in the area, which was so heavy that it affected Pluto in general; New Horizons estimated the ice to be about 6 miles (10 km) thick. A subsurface ocean is the best explanation for the evidence, the researchers added, although looking at less likely scenarios, a thicker ice sheet or movements in the rock may be responsible for the movement. If Pluto had a liquid ocean and enough energy, some scientists believe that Pluto could support life.
7. Pluto has five moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra, Charon being the closest to Pluto and Hydra being the furthest away.
   • In 1978, astronomers discovered that Pluto had a very large moon, almost half the size of the dwarf planet. This moon was nicknamed Charon, after the mythological demon who transported souls to the underworld in Greek mythology.
   • Because Charon and Pluto are so similar in size, their orbit is different from that of most planets and their moons. Both Pluto and Charon orbit a point in space that lies between them, similar to the orbits of binary star systems. For this reason, scientists refer to Pluto and Charon as a double dwarf planet, a double planet, or a binary system.
8. The highly elliptical orbit of Pluto can take it more than 49 times farther from the Sun than Earth. Since the dwarf planet's orbit is so eccentric, or far from circular, Pluto's distance from the Sun can vary considerably. The dwarf planet is actually closer to the sun than Neptune is for 20 years from Pluto's 248 Earth-year orbit, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to study this cold and distant little world.
9. It is not known if Pluto has a magnetic field., but the small size and slow rotation of the dwarf planet suggest that it has little or no such field.
10. the dwarf planet probably has a rocky core surrounded by a blanket of water ice, with more exotic ices like methane, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen ice coating the surface

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