Earlier this week, on July 14th, 2015 at 7:48:48 am, the space probe 'New Horizons' made the closest approach to Pluto of all time. The information we will receive from this mission will give us facts about Pluto that we would have never known otherwise. This mission has prompted me to come up with 10 facts that you may or may not know about Pluto.
1. Pluto is not a planet
This is not a unknown fact. However, most people still call Pluto a planet and argued when the title was removed. Due to Pluto's small size and location in the Kuiper Belt, Pluto was downgraded to the more appropiate title of Dwarf Planet.
2. Pluto is brown
Pluto is extremely far away from the sun and is full of ice. This would make us believe that it it probably a blue color, but pictures from New Horizons has shown us that it is actually a brownish red color.
3. Pluto was once bigger than Earth
The actual size of Pluto has never been larger than the size of Earth, but in 1930 when the dward planet was discovered, it was believed to be, and published to be, larger than our own planet. We were wrong.
4. One man has visited Pluto (kinda)
Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930. In 1997, he passed away and to remember him, some of his ashes were placed on the space probe. So Mr. Tombaugh remains out in space looking at his discovery and the rest of our galaxy.
5. Pluto is both the 8th and 9th planet in our solar system
Pluto has an orbit that is very elliptical, which causes it to cross over Neptune's orbit part of the time. For 20 years of its 248 year trip around the sun, Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune is. But no, they will never collide with each other.
6. You would be very young if living on Pluto
Pluto is very, very far away from the sun, 4.67 billion miles to be exact. This causes one year on Pluto, one trip around the sun, to last 248 earth years. Since it's founding in 1930, the dwarf planet has only completed 1/3 of its trip. This means, that if you were born on Pluto in 1930, you would not be close to having your first birthday.
7. An 11 year old named Pluto
After the discovery of the planet, an 11 year old British girl named Venetia Burney told her grandfather that she thought the planet should be named 'Pluto' after the Roman god. Her grandfather then wrote to Clyde Tombaugh, who agreed with the girl and officially named it Pluto.
8. EVERYTHING
The truth is that no one really knows anything about Pluto. At all. The dwarf planet has been a mystery ever since its discovery, but that will change very soon. Though it could still be years before all the information from New Horizons travels back to us, the fact that one of our spacecrafts is studying the dwarf planet is extraordinary. Until then, we wait and remain clueless.
