We all remember learning about Pluto in school, whether as a planet, or more recently, as a dwarf planet. From Pluto's discovery in 1930 to its reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006, it has remained a staple of United States Solar System education, which is why the recent transmissions from the New Horizons Mission and its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) detailing actual pictures of the planet are so important.
For the photos of Pluto to be taken and then transmitted back to the New Horizons team at Johns Hopkins in Maryland, New Horizons had to travel the 4.67 billion miles that make up the distance between us, which has taken almost nine years since its launch on January 19th in 2006. 4.67 billion miles means that light takes about four and a half hours to travel between Earth and Pluto, meaning that any signal that is sent to New Horizons and subsequently returned back to Earth would take upwards of nine hours, just for a singular message and response.
Pluto, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003.
Not much has been learned about Pluto since its discovery in 1930, which is why all of the information coming to light because of the New Horizons mission is groundbreaking. Some of the most interesting new facts about Pluto to have emerged include the conflicting photos that detail a relatively smooth surface for Pluto, one that scientists expected to be pockmarked with craters, an indication of Pluto's age. Instead, the crater-less surface indicates a much younger planet than what had previously been hypothesized. Scientists are even putting an age, 100 million years old, on Pluto, making it one of the youngest beings in our Solar system.
Screenshot from the New Horizons website, detailing information about the Pluto Flyby.
Another confounding discovery has been the emergence of a heart shaped field of frost on Pluto's surface, that scientists have named Tombaugh Regio after Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto more than 70 years ago. Pluto is also much larger than originally thought.
One of the hotly debated topics, whether Pluto was big enough to be a planet, leading to its eventual demotion to dwarf planet, has finally been put to rest. Pluto is 1,473 miles in diameter. In comparison, Mercury, the Solar system's smallest planet, is 3,032 miles in diameter, making it roughly twice the size of Pluto. Those wondering if this new revelation will revert Pluto's status as dwarf planet, back to its original title of planet, unfortunately will still be left wondering.
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Pluto meets two of the three requirements necessary to be a planet, meaning it orbits the sun and possesses enough gravitational pull to form into a sphere, but does not meet the third because it does not "stand on its own." It is a member of Kuiper belt, which prevents it from earning the title of planet outright. Those who long to see Pluto regain its former title may still have hope, as the definition of what it means to be a planet is still debated, and the future may lead to Pluto's further reclassification.
Initial tweet sent out by the New Horizons team after approaching Pluto.
This is not the end of the New Horizons space craft either. It will continue on, further into the Kuiper belt, where it is expected to make contact with another Kuiper belt member around either 2018 or 2019, and hopefully continue to transmit exciting information about this new frontier.
