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Demotion of Pluto

Introduction

The Planet Pluto is the only planet in the solar system that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Even the Hubble Space Telescope cannot distinguish that the largest features on its surface. Pluto was discovered in February 18, 1930 by amateur astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.Et under certain assumptions, that it could be a satellite of Neptune that would be dropped and then it could be that was probably the first discovered object belongs to large family small objects orbiting the outer solar system. Its diameter is smaller than our Moon, as seen from Earth it appears only as a faint star of the fourteenth magnitude, as saying that his visual observation is relatively difficult. Its slow movement can only be detected on the starry background by a surveillance camera, it is this method that saw "born". Environmental observations of Pluto made ??in 2002 and in May 2005 by the team of Hal Weaver and Alan Stern, using the ACS camera of the Hubble Space Telescope, have permitted the discovery of two objects orbiting the distant planet (Young& Buie, pp.541).

Discussion

Pluto (the first two letters commemorate the memory of Percival Lowell). It was thought that the story of the discovery of Neptune was repeating itself. Recent determinations of the mass of Pluto have abandoned this idea because its mass is much low to significantly disrupt the movement of Uranus and Neptune. Moreover, it appears that errors of observation have led to an overestimation of these disturbances. The discovery of Pluto has not been the result of a precise mathematical prediction, but rather the result of systematic research. In other words, the calculations have led to the discovery well, but they were wrong! The last planet discovered in the solar system is still mysterious, although the first images showing some details of its surface have been published in 1994 and 1995. However, several important discoveries have been made in recent decades. In 1976, spectroscopic observations show that Pluto's surface is covered, at least partially and perhaps even all, of frozen methane (Tobias & Roush, pp. 745-748). In 1978, an elongated appearance of the planet on the best photographs shows a satellite, Charon.

Between 1979 and 1995, the diameter and mass of Pluto are measured correctly: with 2,300 miles in diameter, the planet is smaller than the Moon and has a mass five hundred times lower than that of Earth. In 1988, the observation of a star occultation by Pluto underscores its atmosphere. In 1989, exploration of Triton by Voyager-2 introduced an object that looks like the same so they probably think that he had found his twin brother. In 2005 the Hubble Space Telescope allows the discovery of two small satellites. Pluto completes one revolution around the Sun in 247.7 years on an unusual course for a planet: it is neither circular nor in the plane of the ecliptic. The orbit is inclined 17 degrees to the plan, leading the planet to rise to 1.25 billion km above it, distance is the ...