![]() ![]() (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) The surface of Pluto as seen from NASA's New Horizons during its July 2015 flyby. While methane and nitrogen ice cover much of the surface of Pluto, these materials are not strong enough to support such enormous peaks, so scientists suspect that the mountains are formed on a bedrock of water ice. Observations of Pluto's surface by the New Horizons spacecraft revealed a variety of surface features, including mountains that reach as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters), comparable to the Rocky Mountains on Earth. New Horizons showed that Pluto has a diameter of 1,473 miles (2,370 km), less than one-fifth the diameter of Earth, and only about two-thirds as wide as Earth's moon. Since Pluto is so far from Earth, little was known about the dwarf planet's size or surface conditions until 2015, when NASA's New Horizons space probe made a close flyby of Pluto. This "snow" falls to Pluto's surface a reddish gray. As the haze particles get more massive, they start to fall through the atmosphere, collecting more ice. As the ions interact with each other, they combine into more complex molecules, and start to collect an outer shell of volatile ices. These particles start out high in Pluto's atmosphere as ionized methane and nitrogen. There are also haze particles in Pluto's atmosphere, which scatter blue light. Much like its crust, Pluto's atmosphere is composed of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. The surface crust is a layer of various ices, mostly nitrogen ice, with giant mountains of water ice, and traces of methane and carbon monoxide ices. Outside of that, but still deep in the interior, there's likely an ocean of water, covered by another layer of frozen water ice. ![]() So, rather than being the runt of the planet group, Pluto is now the "king" of the dwarf planet group!Īstronomers believe that Pluto probably has a rocky core. ![]() Even one of its own moons, Charon, is about half of Pluto's size. Pluto satisfies the first two of these criteria, but not the third. The three rules astronomers of the International Astronomical Union came up with to define a planet are: The object must orbit the sun the object must be massive enough to be roughly spherical and the object must have cleared its orbit of any objects of comparable mass to its own (that is, it must be gravitationally dominant in its orbit). Finding all these new objects, it became necessary for astronomers to get more specific about what we mean by the word "planet," and figure out which category Pluto fit into. More like Pluto, in some ways, than Pluto is like the other planets. But as astronomers discovered more and more about the Kuiper Belt (and the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter), we learned that there are lots of objects like Pluto. Why is Pluto no longer considered a planet?įor a long time, we thought Pluto was unique in the Kuiper Belt. The sequel, nearly half a decade in production, already has aired in other parts of the world and was the top-rated series of 2017 and the most-watched natural history title in more than 15 years.Emily Safron is an astronomy instructor at Case Western Reserve University. Blue Planet II will bow day-and-date in Canada on BBC Earth. The last episode of this series in particular hone in on the threats “which are considerable, and man-made,” he added.ĪMC Networks will air the first episode of the seven-part nature documentary sequel series Planet Earth: Blue Planet II on five of its channels, starting Saturday, January 20. “I think we have an obligation” to show the “current perils facing it, which are considerable” Attenborough responded. “Given the way the planet is being treated or mistreated, do you fear this will be monument to what once was?” a reporter asked narrater Sir David Attenborough, because old habits die hard. “In a good way,” Honeyborne hastened to add.īrownlow, undaunted, declined to explain why the worm was given that name, suggesting reporters in the room google “Bobbitt” and “look for a story from the U.S. for particulars. Warming to his theme, Brownlow noted this series used infrared to film a “horrific monstrous” Bobbitt Worm that grabs fish in the middle of the night, which he promised will be horrifying to the audience. In all there are about 400 species of fish that do it,” he said. EP James Honeyborne jumped in to explain that while the Kobudai female becomes a male, other fish see males become female, and some very “gender fluid fish” change back and forth. It’s quite a common phenomenon,” Brownlow added. “I was thinking more #MeToo” the reporter shot back. TCA Summer Tour Canceled Amid Ongoing Writers Strike & SAG-AFTRA Negotiations ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |