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Eight cool facts about Pluto

Pluto, known as one of the coldest, dead and barren ball of ice in space was previously considered a part of our Solar system as a planet but in 2006, it was declared as a dwarf planet. It is one of the most interesting, puzzling and controversial bodies in space.

Published 5 years ago on May 17th 2021, 2:40 pm

By Web Desk

The recent development based on research operations claims that the dead planet is not completely dead and its heart still beats.

Here are eight interesting facts about the once a ninth planet:

Discovery

Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930 by the Lowell Observatory and named after the Roman god of the underworld.

Pluto has five known moons.

The moons are Charon (discovered in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both discovered in 2005), Kerberos originally P4 (discovered 2011) and Styx originally P5 (discovered 2012) official designations S/2011 (134340) 1 and S/2012 (134340) 1.

First visit

Ninety years ago, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh spotted a point of light on a photographic plate and Pluto’s existence was confirmed. In 2015, after a trek of more than six billion kilometres (four billion miles), the New Horizons spacecraft made a long-awaited visit to the moon.

Pluto is the largest dwarf planet

At one point it was thought this could be Eris. Currently, the most accurate measurements give Eris an average diameter of 2,326km with a margin of error of 12km, while Pluto’s diameter is 2,372km with a 2km margin of error.

The long year

Not even one year has passed on Pluto since it was discovered in 1930. The dwarf planet takes 248 Earth years to complete its run around the sun.

Subsurface ocean

Pluto’s surface features and abundant water ice provide compelling evidence of a subsurface ocean, and the recent discovery of traces of ammonia on Pluto’s surface is bolstering the case.

Pluto time

Despite its vast distance from the sun, Pluto is far from dark. Even though the sun on Pluto appears 900 times dimmer than on Earth, it’s still 300 times brighter than Earth’s moon; at high noon, Pluto is as well-lit as dawn or dusk on Earth.

Pluto has a heart shape on its surface

Images released on Tuesday by NASA show a heart shape that measures approximately 1,000 miles across. As NASA reports, “much of the heart’s interior appears remarkably featureless–possibly a sign of ongoing geologic processes.”