[CRUNCH] 10 Pluto Discoveries That SHOOK Astronomers
Pluto is everyone’s favorite dwarf planet. Since the planet was first photographed by
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, numerous new discoveries have been made about
the planet and in this video, we’ll be going through the 10 Pluto Discoveries That SHOOK
Astronomers:
10. Pluto’s moons
Pluto has many moons and we got to get a closer look at them when the New Horizons spacecraft
flew by Pluto in 2015. Pluto has 5 moons, the largest and closest of which is Charon.
Charon is one of the largest trans-Neptunian objects in the galaxy, and its misshapen sphere
was first revealed to us in 2015, although the moon was first discovered in 1978. Other
moons of pluto include Styx, which was first discovered in 2012 but hasn’t been properly
caught on camera as of yet; Nix, which is a tiny rock that was actually captured by
the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 and was first discovered b the Hubble telescope in
2005; Keberos, first discovered in 2011, and Hydra, the second-largest moon of Pluto which
was first discovered in 2005. It’s unlikely that there are any more moons of Pluto that
we haven’t seen, and it’s incredible that the New Horizon spacecraft was able to capture
almost all of them.
9. Pluto’s red polar cap
One of the most interesting discoveries made about Pluto during the New Horizons mission
was its red-hue polar cap. This polar cap was not visible in any of the pictures taken
by the Hubble telescope, and after a clear image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons,
it was clear that this was gonna be one of the main topics of contention among astrologists
regarding Pluto. Apparently, Pluto’s ice caps get their red hue from the high concentrations
of methane ice within them. The process is quite different from earth but the result
is strikingly similar. The red polar cap isn’t all that visible unless images of Pluto are
digitally color corrected, which can have all sorts of problems on its own, but this
is one Pluto discovery that has had scientists’ minds blown!
8. Pluto’s heart
You’ve all seen it by now, this was the discovery made by New Horizons that caught
everyone’s attention. In the iconic picture of Pluto that was released by New Horizon,
Pluto is shown having a heart-shaped formation on its side. Upon closer inspection, it looks
slightly less like a heart, but it’s now referred to as “Pluto’s heart” anyways,
despite its official name being Tombaugh Regio. Pluto’s heart is a vast, open, plain. Something
equivalent to the Sahara desert or Antarctica on earth. The plains are covered in nitrogen
ice and the heart actually plays a very important role in Pluto’s atmosphere, it’s the source
of most of the dwarf planet’s winds.
7. Pluto’s Classification
One of the most contentious topics regarding Pluto is how to classify it. Since Pluto was
first discovered in 1930, Pluto has always been considered the 9th planet from the sun
in our solar system. This was because until then, only 9 “planets” had been discovered
overall and it was considered unlikely, although possible, for planets outside our solar system
to exist. However, since the discovery of multiple exoplanets, a.k.a planets that are
outside the solar system, rogue planets, and finally, dwarf planets, a decision was made
in 2006 to change pluto’s classification from a main planet to a dwarf planet due to
the International Astronomical Union making the decision to finally classify what a planet
even is. As heartbreaking as that may be, Pluto’s classification still remained debated
and may still be changed, as you’ll learn further in this video.
6. Growing glaciers on Pluto
A lot of recent discoveries have been made about the way pluto’s geography works and
it would be impossible to list them all in one video. One of the biggest discoveries
made is the possibility of glaciers that actually grow and decrease depending on what season
it is. This makes Pluto quite similar to the earth when it comes to “having seasons”
and glaciers on earth, too, were known to grow every winter before climate change took
effect on such a scale. Pluto’s glaciers are made up of solid methane and nitrogen.
Seasons in pluto last much longer than they do on earth, it takes over 290 earth-years
for Pluto to make a single orbit around the sun.
5. Underground ocean
This is one discovery that still has astronomers scratching their heads on whether it even
exists or not. Some astronomers claim that Pluto’s surface indicates that there might
have been a vast ocean on the planet before, similar to earth’s, that’s now completely
buried under the ground. There’s also a theory that the ocean may have actually formed
after the surface of Pluto was formed as the ice within Pluto’s surface may have melted
due to the high amounts of radioactive elements present on the dwarf planet. Whatever it is,
this may make Pluto potentially inhabitable, you’ll probably need a really big coat to
protect yourself from the freezing temperatures, though.
4. Pluto’s size
One of the reasons why Pluto was no longer classified as a planet was because Pluto is
absolutely tiny. There were other dwarf planets discovered that rivaled the size of pluto,
although Pluto is still considered the largest dwarf planet, but the existence of similarly-sized
dwarf planets meant Pluto simply could not be classified as a planet anymore, as we’ve
already mentioned. If you were to compare Pluto to something on earth, it wouldn’t
even be as large as Russia. The dwarf planet is also only two-thirds of the size of earth’s
moon, which already looks tiny in comparison to the earth.
3. Pluto’s past
Not much is known about pluto’s past, as the dwarf planet is too far away from the
earth for us to be able to properly study it. Pluto orbits around Neptune’s Kuiper
belt, where numerous other dwarf planets have been found since, and the formation of Pluto
took place an estimated 4.5 billion years ago when material around the Kuiper belt started
to collect and form into some sort of an object. The prediction of Pluto’s discovery was
made in the 1840s when Urbain Le Verrier made a detailed analysis of Neptune and the objects
that surround it and successfully predicted that something like Pluto would end up being
discovered. Although the actual discovery wouldn’t come until 1930 when Clyde W. Tombaugh
discovered Pluto from the Lowell Observatory and made global headlines. The discovery of
a ninth planet was big news and thousands of nominations were submitted for the naming
of the planet, until Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from England, suggested the name,
Pluto, and it was finally named so.
2. Pluto’s atmosphere
One of the most interesting things about Pluto is its atmosphere. According to NASA, Pluto’s
atmosphere is very thin and mostly composed of methane, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen.
There is a multi-layered haze surrounding the planet that lights up as the sun’s light
reflects on it, clear pictures from New Horizons show that there are about 5 layers of Haze.
There’s also a faint blue hue in Pluto’s atmosphere, which may be a result of the various
gases found on the dwarf planet itself and its atmosphere. The existence of an atmosphere
on Pluto has led to some people wanting to classify Pluto as a planet again, as it’s
the only trans-Neptunian object that has its own atmosphere. The atmosphere reaches about
1000km outside of Pluto. As we’ve mentioned, there are also seasonal changes that happen
around Pluto and its atmosphere, but these changes are extremely slow, as Pluto takes
very long to actually orbit the sun.
1. Snail Trail found on Pluto
For a slightly different discovery regarding pluto, we’re gonna be taking a look at this
image which has excited both astronomers and conspiracy theorists alike. On Christmas of
2015, New Horizons released an image of Pluto and it made a lot of noise, the image shows
the surface of the Sputnik Planum area of Pluto and when you really soon into the image,
you’ll notice that there’s some sort of “trail” being shown in the image and there’s
some sort of dark object that clearly also has a shadow. Not many objects have been discovered
on Pluto, let alone objects that apparently have their own trail! Unfortunately for all
the alien lovers watching this video, NASA has said that the object in the picture isn’t
some sort of gigantic alien snail, but rather a block of “dirty” ice that’s being
dragged through the planet because of the fast winds around this area, as Sputnik Planum
is located within Pluto’s heart. Despite NASA’s denial of it being a snail, many
people are still insisting it’s some sort of extraterrestrial creature, and perhaps
we may never know what it truly is.
That’s a wrap for the 10 Pluto discoveries that SHOOK astronomers and If you enjoyed
this video, make sure to leave us a like and subscribe to our channel for more videos like
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