Pluto's Characteristics and Discovery

Pluto's Characteristics and Discovery

Introduction

My project is about Pluto. It is the ninth planet from the sun and the smallest. Pluto is also the planet least known about, so in the following pages you will read the information gotten by scientists over the last years.

PlutoЎ¦s Characteristics and Discovery

Pluto as you already must know is the ninth planet and the smallest. Its surrounded by only a thin atmosphere and has a solid, icy-rock surface. Pluto is the smallest planet and yet smaller than seven moons: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, EarthЎ¦s moon, Europa and Triton. Its diameter is about eighteen percent that of Earth. PlutoЎ¦s mass and diameter could only be estimated for many decades after its discovery. PlutoЎ¦s thin atmosphere is most likely nitrogen and carbon monoxide, in equivalent with solid nitrogen and carbon monoxide ices on the surface. The atmosphere is also similar to that of Neptune's moon Triton. On Triton there are seasons and winds. Because Pluto has a bigger atmosphere than Triton, there may even be clouds and storms. However, seeing these clouds and winds on Pluto is difficult. No one knows whether or not Pluto has a magnetosphere. Scientists were very surprised to find that Jupiter's icy moon Ganymede had a magnetosphere because it is hard to explain how an icy body can develop a magnetic field. Nevertheless, Pluto may well have a magnetic field, as a result of its dual orbit with its moon Charon. Data from 1999 suggests that the surface of Pluto is made of two different parts. It has an icy part and a non-icy part (the non-icy part may be some sort of rock). Scientists are fairly certain the icy part is made of frozen nitrogen, but also contains smaller amounts of frozen carbon monoxide and methane. Pluto is so far away that is it very hard to see the planet, so we can't yet tell how much of the surface is covered with ice, and how much is covered with something which is not ice (the possibly rocky part). After the discovery of Neptune in 1846, mathematics suggested that there still might be a ninth planet. Scientists set out to discover it, and it was finally identified in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh after a careful search of the sky.

PlutoЎ¦s Orbit ,Moons, and New Missions

Pluto revolves about the sun once in 247.7 years at an average distance of 5.9 billion km (3.67 billion mi). The orbit is so eccentric that at certain points along its path Pluto is closer to the sun than is Neptune. No possibility of collision exists, however, because PlutoЎ¦s orbit is inclined more