Dear all you viewers.... This is your favorite Blogger, Brennan! Sorry I haven't been posting anything in a while. I've had a hard time thinking of things to put on, (also I've been sick but I'll save that story for another blog), but today, I have something to talk about!! THE NEW HORIZON SPACE PROBE THAT PASSED BY PLUTO ON JULY 14 OF THIS YEAR!
If you want to learn more about it, just type in New Horizons Space Probe on Google and look at the images that it has taken. You may be thinking, did this thing orbit or did it send a lander..... NO! The problem was that they needed the probe to be light and fast. It took almost a decade (9 years) for it to get to Pluto. Also, you may be thinking it was like the Cassini Space Craft that landed a probe on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. And like the New Horizons Space Probe, it was launched by NASA.
Here are some things that I know about what the probe has seen and what I have heard in the news about it:
Pluto has 11,000 ft. high mountains of water ice. Pluto also seems to be geologically active and scientists are wondering where the heat is coming from since Pluto is the farthest planet away from the sun. And yes, I'm still calling Pluto a planet!!! A likely theory about where the heat is coming from is that it's largest moon Charon is not orbiting Pluto in a way you think the moon orbits the earth. It is actually referred to as a binary system since the objects are very big in mass, Charon and Pluto both orbit each other and in between them is a thing called the Barycenter. This is not a black hole but a place that is in between both their planets where their separate gravities intersect each other and perpetually turn each other in an orbit.
About the heat from Pluto... Scientists propose that the gravity from Charon is possibly deforming Pluto causing it to maybe turn into an oval or pear shape. This is referred to as gravitational bulging. Look it up on Google. What happens is, both objects have very large masses and because of this they both pull on each other. It's like a tug of war where each team is pulling on each other and sometimes they bulge a little. The extreme tidal forces from Charon and Pluto is possibly driving some sort of geothermal activity on Pluto which explains why the surface looks very new and there aren't many craters. An example of this is the Moon Io in Jupitor. Io is very close to Jupiter and Jupiter is very massive. Jupiter's gravity is very strong and pulls on Io just like our moon drives the tides on earth. But with Jupiter's large size, these tidal forces are very extreme.
The New Horizons Space Probe did not drop a lander but this thing called a fly by. There was no time to go into orbit because they didn't have any fuel left. But they did get some fascinating data on the hard drive and it is still beaming back to earth as we speak or as you read this blog. There are so many fascinating things about Pluto. It is the furthest and least known about planet until now. The man who discovered was named Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. When Clyde died, his remains were cremated and a small portion of his ashes were sent on the New Horizons Space Probe. NASA is carrying on his memory by sending his ashes on the fly by of Pluto.
New Horizons will also be joining some of the few space craft that have left our solar system. These include Voyagers I and II, Pioneer 10 and 11. Which means that they will not be coming back to earth and they will keep going to Infinity and Beyond until they are possibly discovered by a race of intelligent creatures likes us.
In conclusion, this moment in history is something great for all of us and for NASA with more data on how binary systems interact with each other and possibly how they are formed. There is still a ton of data left on New Horizons hard drive which is still streaming from his long range antenna. And will possibly conclude by the end of the year or more. Until then, there is still so many mysteries about Pluto that we have yet to see or understand.
This has been your favorite blogger, Brennan Ison.
To Infinity and Beyond
Look at the images from Pluto on Google.
RIP Clyde Tombaugh 1906-1997
