Curiosities and general information about the dwarf-planet Pluto, visited by New Horizons spacecraft in 14-July-2015.

1. PLUTO
by Nilson Soares - Sep´2015

2. Pluto was discovered in 18-Feb-1930 by the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh,
and was originally considered the ninth planet from the Sun.
Its name was proposed by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Oxford, England,
who was interested in classical mythology.
The new planet was officially named as Pluto, the “God of Underground”, in 24-Mar-1930.

3. In the same year of Pluto's discovery,
Walt Disney created one of the most
charismatic character of all times:
The Mickey Mouse’s pet. A year later, in
1931, Disney named the sympathetic
dog with the new planet's name.

4. Until 2005 Pluto was the most distant planet of the Solar System.
Its distance from the Earth is almost 6 billion Km or 4.3 hour-light, which
means that its pallid light takes 4 hours and 20 minutes to reach us.

5. In January 2005 planet Eris was discovered. Since it is larger than Pluto, the astronomers
started to reconsider the classification of a planet. As a result, in August 2006 a new class of
minor planets was created, so Pluto, Eris and Ceres (the largest asteroid between Mars and
Jupiter) became known as "dwarf-planets".
Pluto is 1,100 kilometers smaller than our
natural satellite, the Moon. Pluto's diameter
is 2,370 Km while Moon's is 3,470 Km.

6. In 2006, same year in which Pluto was
demoted as a dwarf-planet, NASA launched
the New Horizons spacecraft with the mission
to explore the distant and unknown objects at
the border of Solar System and unveil its
mysteries.

7. New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft ever created.
After its launching it reached the Moon’s orbit in
just 9 hours. The Apollo 11 mission took 3 days to
reach our natural Satellite in 1969.
Even at a fantastic speed of 75,600 Km/h, the probe
needed 9 ½ years to cross the 5.9 billion Km of
distance between Earth and Pluto.
The spacecraft operates with less power than a pair
of 100-watt light bulbs and it costs about US$720
million to NASA.
Besides an arsenal of scientific instruments, the
mission is carrying the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh,
the astronomer who discovered Pluto.
He requested that his ashes be sent to space before
dying in 1997.

8. It also carries a Compact-Disc media recorded with 434,738 names of person who supported
the mission when it was announced. I am one of them! And now I’m part of its history!

9. Pluto is a fascinating icy world which keeps the secrets of Solar System formation, just
like a huge and very ancient fossil. That’s why Pluto is interesting for the scientists.
This high resolution image is currently the Pluto’s most detailed picture taken by New
Horizons probe during its maximum approximation in 14-July-2015.

10. Pluto has 5 satellites: The largest moon is Charon. It was discovered in 1978,
almost 50 years after Pluto’s discovery. Nix and Hydra were discovered in 2006,
same year of New Horizons’ launching. Kerberos and Styx were discovered by
Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 and 2012 respectively, while looking for potential
hazards for the New Horizons probe.

11. New Horizons spacecraft was able
to show us Pluto’s surface from a
distance of 1,800 kilometers.

12. The smooth and bright region
across the center of Pluto was
named Sputnik Planum and is
dominated by icy terrain.

13. Evolution of an image: From a pixelated point of light to the
sharpest high-res photo ever taken from this distant world.
And much more is coming! We’ll take about 16 months to
receive all data and images New Horizons is sending back!

14. End