How Long Would it Take Us to Get to Pluto? - Quanto tempo ci vorrebbe per arrivare su Plutone?
Once upon a time, in 1930, there was a little 11-year-old girl called Venetia. One morning, as
she was eating breakfast with her grandfather, it struck her to suggest calling the newly discovered
planet Pluto. And that’s exactly what happened! Pluto is a really cool place in outer space!
It's much smaller than Earth's Moon, and it has a nice heart-shaped glacier that's the
size of Texas and Oklahoma combined. It’s an icy dwarf planet that is very, very far away
from us. It's so cold that nothing can live on it. It's about half the size of the United States
and it's so far away from the Sun that it takes over 30 years for it to go around the Sun once!
Pluto has blue skies, and it has spinning moons that look like they're dancing in the sky. There
are also really tall mountains like the ones here on Earth, and when it snows, the snow is red!
Have you ever wondered how long it would take us to get to Pluto? The answer lies
within the vastness of space and the technology we have available to us.
Join me on this trip to find out how long it would take us to
get to Pluto! ---
From an average distance of 3.7 billion miles,
or 5.9 billion kilometers, Pluto is 39 astronomical units away from the Sun.
One astronomical unit is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight
5.5 hours to travel from the Sun to Pluto. That means if you take 5 hours and a half to get
to work and back, the sun takes the same amount of time to get to Pluto which is really far away!
It's really dark on Pluto, but the Sun is still there! It's not nearly as bright as the Sun here
on Earth. It's about 300 times brighter than the full moon, so it's kind of like a really bright
twilight here on Earth. There is a moment each day here on Earth when it's the same brightness
as midday on Pluto! That's called "Pluto time"! Can you find out when that happens near you?
As we said, it is estimated that if we were to travel to Pluto at the speed of light,
it would take us about 5.5 hours. However, due to the limitations of current technology and the
vastness of space, it would take much longer than this—potentially hundreds of years—to reach Pluto.
The journey to Pluto would be one of the longest journeys ever attempted by any human.
Some of the challenges we would face include severely limited fuel, supplies and food,
and a very long, dark journey through space. If you’re interested in undertaking an
interstellar journey, you’d first need to secure a space-worthy vehicle and
enough fuel and supplies to make the trip. From there, the journey to Pluto would be
long and arduous—not to mention it would take an incredible amount of patience and determination.
So, how long would it take to get to Pluto from Earth? It all depends on the technology,
resources, and preparation we have available to us, but one thing is certain: it would be a long
and difficult journey that would require a great deal of dedication and courage.
The answer to this question is both simple and yet incredibly complicated. It is simple
in that it is almost impossible for us to make it to Pluto in a human lifetime.
But it is complicated in that the journey to this distant and mysterious realm of our solar
system entails a great deal of planning, physics, and engineering. Unlike other planets that are
located within a few light years of Earth, Pluto is located an incredible 4.67 billion miles away.
With the technology and knowledge that we have today, such a feat of space travel would require
an immense amount of understanding and experience in rocketry, engineering, and astrophysics.
Yet, our journey to Pluto and its moons - Charon, Nix, and Hydra - is one that captures
the imaginations of space enthusiasts, scientists, and dreamers alike. As a dwarf planet, Pluto
remains a wonderful subject of exploration and discovery. With its perplexing outer atmosphere
and its unknown details, Pluto continues to be a source of fascination and wonder.
In this video, we will explore all that we know about Pluto,
the possibilities of a journey to the dwarf planet, and the wonders of what we may discover.
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And this is where enters the New Horizons Mission!
In 2006, the United States launched the New Horizons mission that made
history as the first spacecraft to ever venture to the planet Pluto and beyond.
After a nine-year journey, the spacecraft reached its destination on July 14th, 2015.
On that day, we were given a glimpse of the distant world that exists beyond our solar system.
What we saw was remarkable — providing us with an unprecedented view of Pluto and its moons.
For over a decade, the New Horizons mission has been studying the far reaches of our solar system
and providing us with more information on the planet Pluto and its moons. It has helped us to
better understand the origins of the solar system and to draw new connections between the planets,
moons, and asteroids. By studying the surface of Pluto, the mission has uncovered remarkable
evidence of geological activity and has shed light on the dwarf planet's composition and environment.
New Horizons took a picture of the surface of the planet Pluto, and
it's much younger than scientists thought it would be. On the surface, there is a mountain range
that is almost as tall as 11,000 feet, which is really tall. Scientists think that this mountain
range is really young, only about 100 million years old. Nobody knows why it is so young!
This could prompt astronomers and geologists to reconsider
potential sources of energy which may fuel geological movement on other icy planets.
In mid-July of 2015, images were sent back from the spacecraft New Horizons which showed
a huge plain of land on Pluto that did not have any craters. Because of this,
geologists believe it is a relatively new terrain, so they have informally named it
Sputnik Planitia. They are still trying to figure out what caused the land to form in this way.
In July of 2015, the world was captivated by the news of the historic flyby of Pluto by the New
Horizons spacecraft from NASA. After traveling for nearly a decade and covering 4.8 billion miles,
the spacecraft was able to capture stunning images of the dwarf planet. However, it was not until
after the flyby that the world learned of an even more remarkable feat—the discovery of four
moons around Pluto by the New Horizons team just days before the spacecraft’s closest approach.
This fortuitous discovery was truly a stroke of luck for the entire mission. The moons,
named Kerberos, Styx, Nix, and Hydra, are small (no bigger than 90 miles in diameter) and would
have been easily overlooked had the team not taken a closer look at the Pluto system. Even
more remarkable is that this discovery was made with a relatively small telescope based on Earth.
Without the discovery of these moons, New Horizons would have had to navigate through
the Pluto system with no knowledge of the moons’ positions. This increases the chances
that the spacecraft could have been damaged or destroyed by a collision. Scientists had
to make sure that these moons didn't hurt the spacecraft, so they had to be careful.
The fact that the moons were discovered early is a testament to the dedication of the New
Horizons mission team and the importance of continued exploration of our solar system.
With the successful flyby of Pluto, we were able to gain a unique and unprecedented look
into the still largely mysterious region of the outer solar system.
And because of the discovery of the four moons, this flyby was able to be completed without risk
of damage or destruction to the spacecraft. The discovery of the moons of Pluto shows us
the importance of looking closely and paying attention to the details, even when studying
a system that is billions of miles away. We are fortunate that the moons were found early,
allowing for New Horizons to move through Pluto's system without obstruction. Without
this stroke of luck, we may have never seen such incredible images of Pluto and its moons.
The New Horizons spacecraft has made several discoveries, including evidence of a past ocean
on Charon, a moon of Pluto, and strange hills on Pluto made of water-ice and frozen nitrogen.
In 2018, one study suggested that beneath the surface of Pluto could be an asphalt layer,
and some scientists have also suggested that there could be enough ingredients on
the surface of Pluto for life to exist, despite it being so far from the sun.
So what did we learn from the New Horizons Mission?
The mission has also provided us with insights into the temperature and atmosphere of the
dwarf planet, helping us to better understand the conditions that exist on its surface. We
have also gained a better understanding of the structure and activity of its moons, including
the presence of ice volcanoes on Charon and the mysterious deposits of nitrogen ice on Nix.
The mission has also answered many questions about the origins of Pluto and its moons,
providing us with evidence that these exotic bodies were formed from the same primordial disk
of gas and dust that birthed our solar system. What future does Pluto have in Space exploration?
The journey to Pluto and beyond has opened up a world of possibilities for further exploration
and research. As the data and images from the New Horizons mission continue to be analyzed,
there are sure to be more discoveries in the coming years and decades. Who knows what
mysteries of the universe we may uncover next? For now, let us rejoice in the success of this
remarkable mission and the amazing discoveries it has made. The New Horizons mission has
shown us that anything is possible and that the journey to discovery is an ongoing, evolving one.
Especially since there is an upcoming one in the near future!
Persephone, a comprehensive 30.7-year mission to both orbit within the Pluto system and
encounter a few Keplerian Belt Objects. Persephone is a really cool mission to go
to Pluto! We are aiming for Persephone to launch by 2031 and to perform a flyby of Jupiter in 2032.
In 2050, we are looking forward to a flyby of a Kuiper Belt Object and then in 2058,
it will reach Pluto to begin a three-year orbit. It's possible that it could then
journey on to another KBO in 2069. A rocket would launch with a special
spaceship on board, and it would take about 27 years to get to Pluto. That's like your entire
childhood! But it would be worth it because once it gets there it would help us learn more about
Pluto and something called KBOs. KBOs are special things that are in space, and Persephone would be
able to fly by them and take pictures. So it would be a really great mission to witness!
Exploring the Pluto system is a difficult challenge. It is a long way away and the speed
of the mission must be slowed down, resulting in a long cruise time and a more expensive mission
plan. In order to operate for the 30+ year cruise, more advanced power sources than the
current radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are required to complete the mission.
Why do we need to get back to Pluto if it’s so difficult, you may ask?
The New Horizons mission gave evidence that Pluto is unexpectedly geologically active despite how
far it is from the Sun, and scientists now suspect that it contains an underground ocean and that
it is not as lifeless as it may have seemed. This could mean that there is life on Pluto,
but this can only be confirmed by further study. To understand why Pluto is active and
if it contains liquid water, researchers propose sending a spacecraft into orbit to measure its
gravity signature. The only way to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon is to orbit the
object multiple times, closely observing how its gravitational pull influences the spacecraft.
--- Thank you for taking the
time to explore the wonders of the distant dwarf planet Pluto and its moons. With the success of
the New Horizons mission, we are now able to look back and marvel at the unbelievable achievements
we have made in space exploration. The journey to Pluto has been a long one, but it has ultimately
brought us closer to understanding the mysteries of our universe. We can now look forward to the
possibilities of more discoveries and explorations in the years to come with the Persephone mission.
You’ve reached the end of this video! Thank you very much for watching and stay tuned
for the next episode in our series! Don’t forget to check out our previous episodes!