Why is pluto became a dwarf planet

Why not inspire students to rediscover and explore the space objects that most appeal to them? I may be a lumper, not a splitter, too. Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions. Not a subscriber? Become one now. Skip to content. Science News Needs You Support nonprofit journalism.

By Lisa Grossman August 24, at am. There was a problem signing you up. Closer views highlight the rugged water-ice mountains that border some of these cells. Clyde Tombaugh, shown here with a homemade telescope, discovered Pluto in when he was 24 years old. Pluto rises above the horizon of its largest moon, Charon, in this illustration. Physics Neutron star collisions probably make more gold than other cosmic smashups By Emily Conover November 3, Space A rush to watch a supernova exposed its last gasp before exploding By Emily Conover November 2, Astronomy Astronomers may have spotted the first known exoplanet in another galaxy By Lisa Grossman October 25, Astronomy The fastest-spinning white dwarf ever seen rotates once every 25 seconds By Ken Croswell October 12, Astronomy When James Webb launches, it will have a bigger to-do list than s researchers suspected By Lisa Grossman October 6, From the Nature Index Paid Content.

Log in Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by e-mail. A day on Pluto lasts hours, or about 6 Earth days. Pluto has a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide.

The atmosphere has a blue tint and distinct layers of haze. Pluto has 5 moons. The largest, Charon, is so big that Pluto and Charon orbit each other like a double planet. Venetia Burney, just 11 years old at the time, suggested the name Pluto in When Pluto was reclassified in from a planet to a dwarf planet, there was widespread outrage on behalf of the demoted planet.

As the textbooks were updated, the internet spawned memes with Pluto going through a range of emotions, from anger to loneliness. But since the release of New Horizons images showing a very prominent heart-shaped feature on the surface, the sad Pluto meme has given way to a very content, loving Pluto that would like to once again be visited by a spacecraft. The Disney cartoon character Pluto, Mickey's faithful dog, made his debut in , the same year Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet.

There is speculation that Walt Disney named the animated dog after the recently discovered planet to capitalize on its popularity, but other accounts are less certain of a direct link. But either way, the joke connecting the two, as told in the Mel Brooks film "Spaceballs " remains:. We were lost. None of us knew where we were. It's possible that this region is still being shaped and changed by geologic processes. These icy plains also display dark streaks that are a few miles long, and aligned in the same direction.

It's possible the lines are created by harsh winds blowing across the dwarf planet's surface. Related: Photos of Pluto and its moons. Pluto's surface is one of the coldest places in the solar system, at roughly minus degrees Fahrenheit minus degrees Celsius. When compared with past images, pictures of Pluto taken by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that the dwarf planet had apparently grown redder over time, apparently due to seasonal changes.

Pluto may have or may have had a subsurface ocean, although the evidence is still out on that finding. If the subsurface ocean existed, it could have greatly affected Pluto's history. For example, scientists found that the zone of Sputnik Planitia redirected Pluto's orientation due to the amount of ice in the area, which was so heavy it affected Pluto overall; New Horizons estimated the ice is roughly 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 layer or movements in the rock may be responsible for the movement.

If Pluto did have a liquid ocean, and enough energy, some scientists think Pluto could harbor life. Atmospheric composition : Methane, nitrogen. Observations by New Horizons show that Pluto's atmosphere extends as far as 1, miles 1, km above the surface of the dwarf planet. Magnetic field : It remains unknown whether Pluto has a magnetic field, but the dwarf planet's small size and slow rotation suggest it has little to no such field.

Chemical composition : Pluto probably consists of a mixture of 70 percent rock and 30 percent water ice. Internal structure : The dwarf planet probably has a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of water ice, with more exotic ices such as methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen ice coating the surface.

Pluto's highly elliptical orbit can take it more than 49 times as far out from the sun as 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 actually gets closer to the sun than Neptune is for 20 years out of Pluto's Earth-years-long orbit, providing astronomers a rare chance to study this small, cold, distant world.

As a result of that orbit, after 20 years as the eighth planet in order going out from the sun , in , Pluto crossed Neptune's orbit to become the farthest planet from the sun until it was demoted to the status of dwarf planet. When Pluto is closer to the sun, its surface ices thaw and temporarily form a thin atmosphere, consisting mostly of nitrogen, with some methane. Pluto's low gravity, which is a little more than one-twentieth that of Earth's, causes this atmosphere to extend much higher in altitude than Earth's.

When traveling farther away from the sun, most of Pluto's atmosphere is thought to freeze and all but disappear. The duo's gravity puts them in a synchronous orbit, which means they face each other with the same side all the time.

It swung past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February , conducted a six-month-long reconnaissance flyby study of Pluto and its moons in summer , and culminated with Pluto's closest approach on July 14, New Horizons also found Pluto to have blue skies and water ice.

Also considered by many to be an asteroid, Ceres , like Pluto, was also renamed as a dwarf planet in Ceres was discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in Ceres's shape resembles a flattened sphere with a diameter of about miles kilometers. It is by far the largest and most massive known body in the asteroid belt, and it contains about one-third of the estimated total mass of all asteroids in the belt. Ceres is made up of a rocky inner core surrounded by a mantle of water-ice.

A thin, dusty, outer crust covers the dwarf planet named after the Roman goddess of grain. All rights reserved. Pluto Pluto is one of the most mysterious and controversial celestial objects in the solar system.

Find out what most mystifies scientists and stargazers about this dwarf planet. Is Pluto a Dwarf Planet?

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