The mission revealed that Pluto's surface features plains and mountains made of nitrogen ice and water ice. Launched in 2006, the spacecraft took nearly nine years to reach its target. Not much was known about Pluto before NASA's New Horizons mission. It takes Pluto nearly 250 years to complete one trip around the Sun. Pluto's orbit is not circular like those of the other planets and it actually crosses Neptune's orbit, which means that Pluto is sometimes closer to the Sun than Neptune is. The largest, Charon, is over half the size of its host.
The best-known dwarf planet, Pluto is also the largest in size and the second largest in mass. Pluto was officially reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. When Pluto was discovered in 1930, it was called the ninth planet in our solar system, but its status as a fully fledged planet came into question in the 1990s. (Credit: NASA/ JHU APL/ SwRI/Alex Parker) PlutoĪ true colour image of Pluto taken by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. Several dozens more are being considered for the category, and scientists estimate that hundreds or even thousands of dwarf planets may exist in the solar system. Each known dwarf planet in our solar system is actually smaller than Earth's Moon! Dwarf planets in our solar systemĪs the authority on the naming and classification of celestial objects, the International Astronomical Union officially recognizes five dwarf planets in the solar system: Because they are smaller, dwarf planets lack the gravitational forces needed to pull in and accumulate all of the material found in their orbits. often have many other large bodies such as comets, asteroids, or other dwarf planets near themĪs their name suggests, the main difference between a dwarf planet and a planet is size.What are dwarf planets?ĭwarf planets are celestial objects that: Dwarf planets share particular characteristics that have traditionally made them a bit harder to classify. The universe contains unique objects that don't always fit into neat categories like stars, planets and galaxies.
0 kommentar(er)
