New Horizons and Pluto

By Gabriel Carriere

September 15th, 2015

The New Horizons spacecraft was launched in January 2006, and was sent to explore Pluto. It passed by Pluto on July 14th, 2015, and has sent back gigabytes of data since. The New Horizons probe has succeeded in giving us new information about Pluto and its vicinity.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, using a telescope he built in 1929 out of tractor parts. Pluto is the ninth planet in the solar system, and was named Pluto by Venetia Burney, after the Roman god of the Underworld. It has five moons, three of that were discovered by New Horizons.

In 2006, Pluto was declared a dwarf planet, because of its inability to clear its orbit of asteroids, due to its small mass. People continue to argue over its classification as a dwarf planet, but unless the rule about clearing its orbit is removed, it will remain one.

New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto in July 14th 2015, at about 8:00 pm, at only seven thousand, seven hundred and fifty km to Pluto’s surface. It discovered that Pluto spins in the opposite direction than Earth, that Pluto’s diameter was smaller than scientists had previously thought, at only one thousand, four hundred miles in diameter, that Pluto has a molten core, with ongoing geology (its surface is still changing; not static, like the moon), and that it has some atmosphere, mainly consisting of hydrocarbons, such as methane, and octane.

New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft to date, at fifty-one thousand kilometers per hour, which is faster than a bullet. It took New Horizons nearly a decade to fly to Pluto. New Horizons is subject to extreme conditions, and temperatures, flying through the Kuiper belt, down to a freezing cold minus four hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It will take New Horizons nearly sixteen months to send back all of its banks of data. The New Horizons probe has succeeded in its mission of giving us new information about Pluto and its vicinity.

Pluto in True Color

This image, taken by the New Horizons probe, shows Pluto’s surface in true color, and high resolution.

Pluto’s Mountains

This image shows some of the many mountain ranges on Pluto.

Latest HD image of Pluto

This image is the best image of Pluto to date.

Bibliography

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Author’s last name: Anderson

Author’s first name: Gina

Title of Article: New Horizons Team finds Haze, Flowing ice on Pluto

Title of Website: NASA

Publication Date: 8/7/2015

Date you accessed site: 8/24/2015

URL: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-new-horizons-team-finds-haze-flowing-ice-on-pluto

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Author’s last name: Northorn

Author’s first name: Karen

Title of Article: NASA’s Three-Billion Mile Journey to Pluto

Title of Website: NASA

Publication Date: 7/14/2015

Date you accessed site: 8/17/2015

URL: http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-three-billion-mile-journey-to-pluto-reaches-historic-encounter

Magazine:

Author’s last name: Drake

Author’s first name: Nadia

Title of Article: Destination Pluto

Name of Magazine: National Geographic

Publication Date: July 2015

Page Number of article: 112