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in 1930 Clyde TombaughA 25-year-old amateur astronomer observed a small, dim object in the night sky.
was working in Lowell Observatory When he spent about a year in Flagstaff, Arizona, he used a blink comparator (a special kind of microscope that can examine and compare images) to see what happened for a time considered the ninth planet in our solar system.
By all accounts, Pluto was – well – weird. At one point, astronomers believed (it wasn’t) that it could potentially be larger than Mars. Its unusual orbit of 248 years is known. Intercept Neptune. Today, Pluto is considered the largest object in the Kuiper Belt – but it is no longer considered a planet.
in 2006, International Astronomical Union He voted to downgrade Pluto, which describes a planet as an object that orbits the sun, has a round shape, and “clears the neighborhood around its orbit.” their satellites. Since Pluto did not tick the third box, it was considered a dwarf planet.
A new concept mission now submitted to NASA aims to take a closer look at Pluto and nearby systems. Proposed in late 2020, Persephone would explore whether Pluto has an ocean and how the planet’s surface and atmosphere evolved.
Persephone would send a spacecraft armed with high-resolution cameras into orbit of Pluto for three years, mapping its surface and the surface of its largest moon, Charon.
But why is Pluto worth visiting?
That same year, Pluto was pushed from its planetary pedestal, NASA sent. new horizons Pluto and the Kuiper Belt mission to better understand the outer edge of our solar system.
After reaching Pluto in 2015, New Horizons has reached a point where it has reached scientific treasure. Close-ups of Pluto revealed potentially active mountain ranges, flowing ice, and a surprising record. geological history on the surface.
Carly HowettA planetary physicist and Persephone principal investigator says New Horizons shows us how complex this part of space really is.
“New Horizons was not fundamentally new technology, but gave people a sense of what the Pluto system could be like,” Howett says. “The world saw Pluto for the first time.”
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