Despite astronomers dethroning Pluto as the ninth planet of the solar system, scientists are still fascinated by the distant body. NASA’s New Horizons mission has soared through the vacuum of space since 2006 to perform a flyby of Pluto in 2015. NASA’s flyby gave astronomers unprecedented insight into the dwarf planet 85 years after it was discovered.
In one of its most stunning portraits of Pluto, NASA’s probe photographed the dwarf planet’s western portions.
The photo features a beautiful white expanse of ice rich in frozen gases of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen.
Astronomers have dubbed the frozen feature Pluto’s “heart” or the Sputnik Planitia.
New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern called the Sputnik Planitia one of Pluto’s “crown jewels”.
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Another fascinating photo revealed unusual blade-like formations on the dwarf planet’s surface.
The features dubbed penitentes are bowl-shaped depressions surrounded by spires up to several hundreds of feet tall.
NASA said: “NASA’s New Horizons mission revolutionised our knowledge of Pluto when it flew past that distant world in July 2015.
“Among its many discoveries were images of strange formations resembling giant knife blades of ice, whose origin had remained a mystery.
“Now, scientists have turned up a fascinating explanation for this ‘bladed terrain’: the structures are made almost entirely of methane ice, and likely formed as a specific kind of erosion wore away their surfaces, leaving dramatic crests and sharp divides.”
In another New Horizons photo, the NASA probe snapped a photo of Pluto right next to its largest moon Charon.
NASA’s New Horizons mission revolutionised our knowledge of Pluto
NASA
Pluto boasts a total of five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.
NASA’s experts reckon the moons formed as a result of impacts between Pluto and similarly-sized objects.
The collisions would have most likely occurred in the early days of the solar system.
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NASA said: “Charon, the biggest of Pluto’s moons, is about half the size of Pluto itself, making it the largest satellite relative to the planet it orbits in our solar system.
“It orbits Pluto at a distance of just 12,200 miles (19,640 kilometres).
“For comparison, our moon is 20 times farther away from Earth.
“Pluto and Charon are often referred to as a double planet.”
Why is Pluto no longer a planet?
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officials reclassified Pluto’s destination as a planet.
The controversial decision sparked a wave of international outrage.
According to the IAU, Pluto no longer met the criteria to be called a planet, following a two-year deliberation on the definition of a planet.
The group said: “Pluto now falls into the dwarf planet category on account of its size and the fact that it resides within a zone of other similarly-sized objects known as the trans-Neptunian region.”
Quick facts about the dwarf planet Pluto:
1. Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930, by US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.
2. Pluto is estimated to have a radius of 715 miles or 1,151 km.
3. A single day on Pluto lasts a staggering 153 hours and one orbit of the Sun lasts 248 Earth years.
4. Pluto was officially reclassified as a dwarf planet and not a full-blown planet in 2006.
5. Pluto has a thin atmosphere of molecular nitrogen with trace amounts of methane and carbon dioxide.
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