in the outer reaches of the solar system
nearly 6 billion kilometres away the
dwarf planet Pluto slowly orbits the Sun
before NASA's new Horizons probe flew
past the icy world in July 2015 almost
all the information we had about this
distant object came from observations
made by Hubble
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discovered in 1930 by the american
astronomer clyde tombaugh bow Pluto was
originally classified as the ninth
planet of the solar system however as
more and more objects of a similar size
mass and composition were discovered
astronomers started to question whether
it was truly a planet
in 2006 they decided it wasn't puto was
reassigned to the newly defined category
of dwarf planet
until july 2015 when nasa's new horizons
space probe reached Pluto after nine
years of flight almost all the
information that we had about Pluto came
from Hubble
Pluto's largest moon cherrim was
discovered by the United States Naval
Observatory in the USA before Hubble was
launched in 1990 after launch double
turned its gaze to this small system to
see what more it could find out
the space telescope was able to discover
for additional moons around Pluto due to
its advantageous position outside of
Earth's atmosphere
Hubble observations from 2006 uncovered
the small moons nix and hydra both less
than 60 kilometers in diameter
in 2011 and
d12 two additional moons were found in
hubble data they were named cameras and
sticks fitting the names of two of the
other moons and Bluto itself in being
creatures and places of the mythological
Greek underworld
Hubble images taken over a period of
time allowed astronomers to estimate the
size and brightness of the moons and
showed that both nix and hydra are
chaotically tumbling as the orbit
astronomers think that the same would be
true for kerberos and state
sharp vision has allowed some features
be seen on Pluto these span several
hundred kilometres and the planets polar
regions as well as some large bright
spots are visible these remained the
most detailed maps of Pluto until the
new horizons flyby
couples high-resolution images can't
compete with pictures taken from proves
that path close to the planet
however Hubble has the advantage of
being able to carry out long-term
monitoring returning to look at these
objects periodically this is crucial for
the study of planetary atmospheres and
geology in the coming years astronomers
plan to use the infrared vision of
hubble's successor the NASA easter csa
james webb space telescope for future
observations of Pluto this telescope
planned for launching 2018 will be able
to study the surface chemistry of Pluto
its moons and many other bodies that
lion the distant region around puto
hopefully resolving many of the
mysteries lurking in the outer reaches
of the solar system
now that you've caught up with Hubble
make sure to get the latest from the
ground to the e so cast highlights the
best of the european southern
observatory and it's powerful telescopes
that observe from high in the chilean
andes at the southern hemisphere's best
known sites for astronomical
observations
good
the TV coverage of the things and that
man got the black up now you're gonna be
a TV picture mail yet we are getting a
TV picture now that's one all
our family