after 9 years, it intrigued scientists

76 years after the discovery, Pluto was considered a planet, but in 2006, scientists changed its status and turned into a dwarf planet.

–

On August 24, 2006, Pluto, discovered in 1930 and considered the ninth planet in the solar system, ceased to have this status. The International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto did not fulfill the status of a planet in terms of characteristics, and therefore was awarded the title of a dwarf planet. In 2015, Pluto was approached by the New Horizons spacecraft, the data of which showed that this is a very intriguing world that needs to be explored more carefully. Forbes.

16 years after Pluto was declared a dwarf planet, there are still scientists who disagree. But the reality is that Pluto remains a dwarf planet and is the largest object in the Kuiper belt. This is a region of the solar system beyond Neptune’s orbit, which is filled with various cosmic bodies: asteroids and dwarf planets. Pluto has an eccentric orbit, so it approaches the Sun at a distance of 4.4 billion km, then recedes at a distance of 7.4 billion km.

The main reason Pluto ceased to be a planet is that close to a real planet, according to scientists, there should be no objects of comparable size, only satellites. One of the reasons Pluto lost planet status is the 2005 discovery of an object in the Kuiper belt called Eris. This object also received the title of a dwarf planet. Eris is the most distant dwarf planet in the solar system and Pluto is not much larger than him. In 2006, Eris could have received planet status, but scientists decided that both this object and Pluto did not meet the necessary characteristics.

16 years ago, this wasn’t the first time Pluto had been affected by the scientists’ decision. The Voyager 2 spacecraft never visited Pluto, although it could have, but scientists decided that studying Neptune’s moon Triton would be a more important task for that.

Speaking of which Focus already written on the characteristics of the mission “Voyager 2” apparatus and what discoveries he made before he left the solar system.

Also in 2006, it was not the first time in history that a planet in the solar system lost its original state. In 1801, scientists discovered Ceres, which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. So the scientists decided it was a lost planet, but a year later this object was declared simply an asteroid. But in the same meeting in which Pluto received its new status, Ceres also received the title of dwarf planet.

Pluto was only reached in July 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft. It was the data from the device that showed that scientists are dealing with a very intriguing world. It turned out that volcanic and tectonic processes are taking place on Pluto, that is, this dwarf planet is still geologically active.

The spacecraft confirmed that there is an atmosphere on Pluto, which was first mentioned in 1985. Furthermore, the data showed that on Pluto’s surface there are organic compounds and huge faults in the crust. On the surface of the dwarf planet, the device found nitrogen ice plains, mountain ranges and “ice volcanoes”.

Pluto is a very interesting world, to which it is necessary to send new spacecraft to explore it, because it is possible that there is an ocean of water under the surface of the ice, writes Forbes.

Pluto, whose area is only 2 times larger than the United States, has 5 satellites:

• The largest satellite is Charon, discovered in 1978;
• Nikta and Hydra, discovered in 2005;
• Kerberos, discovered in 2011;
• Styx, discovered in 2012.

Pluto completes one revolution around the Sun in 248 Earth years. Scientists believe that the temperature on its surface is between -233 and -213 degrees Celsius.

As already written Focusscientists have discovered active Pluto ice volcanoeswhich are larger than the Andes in height.

Also Focus wrote that scientists found this out Pluto’s atmosphere is slowly disappearing.

–