A journey of nine age and 4.8 billion kilometers ( three billion miles ) finally come to its summit yesterday as NASA’sunmanned New Horizons spacecraftreached the dwarf planet Pluto for its long - look flyby .
Here are six gripping facts we ’ve learned about the gnome major planet this workweek :
1 . Pluto ’s heart does not stand still
extremely visible in the latest image , the landscape painting of Pluto’sheart - shapedarea – which is probably cause by Robert Lee Frost – is incessantly changing . New Horizons planetary scientist Bonnie Buratti said toPopular Science : “ We have been monitoring what we now know as the affectionateness for 60 age , and it does look like that heart thing has been erode aside over time . ”
2 . Pluto may be little - but it ’s bigger than we suppose
New Horizons is also recording more accurate mensuration for Pluto . The latest and most exact measurement sent back has Pluto with adiameter of 2,370 kilometers(about 1,473 mil ) , which is about the length of 56 Marathon .
This measuring is about 70 kilometers ( 44 miles ) more than what scientist previously estimated for Pluto ’s center . And this means Pluto is the largest object in our Solar System beyond Neptune ’s orbit .
3 . Oh , my ! Pluto ’s crater could be constitute after Star Trek characters
Craters on the surface of Pluto are probable signs ofdeep impactfrom little space rocks jar with the planet . Researchers may name some of thesecraters after charactersfrom Star Trek .
This screenshot from a Google+ Hangout in 2013 illustrates how some features on Pluto could have Star Trek names . SETI Institute / Space.com
4 . There ’s something in the aviation
Excuse you , Pluto ! New Horizons detectednitrogen emissionsfrom Pluto as early as five days off from its closest approach , much earlier than researcher predicted .
Because New Horizons break up up these whiffy emanations from 6 million kilometers ( 3.7 million miles ) away rather than the predicted 2.5 million kilometers ( 1.6 million mi ) , it suggests that the germ of the colicky releases could be much strong than forecast , the atmosphere of Pluto is much flimsy than previously think , or something else entirely . Fortunately , New Horizons should have roll up sufficient data point on its flyby to settle a definite grounds .
5 . The glowering side of Pluto
Dark spotshave been detect on Pluto ’s airfoil . What ’s strange about these irregularities is their exchangeable size and spacing . Unfortunately , they had rotate out of view when New Horizons arrived , so we wo n’t learn much more about them from this mission .
The last view of Pluto ’s dark spotlight as seen by New Horizons before the flyby . NASA
6 . Those chapiter are in spades water ice , shabu baby
There were theories that Pluto had chicken feed caps but nothing was for certain – until now . The ice has beenconfirmedas rooted methane and nitrogen internal-combustion engine .
