The Nasa probe was left in 2006, just months before the planet had been downgraded to a dwarf planet.
The journey does not stop New Horizons to Pluto, the ‘ eplorazione continue with other fly-by of other bodies of the mysterious Kuiper Belt.
DATA
Pluto is the last object in the solar system still unexplored. The last outpost unknown and mysterious. Him know only the canonical elements. To make a complete circle around our star, for example, it employs almost 250 of our years.
Currently its distance from Earth is about 4,500 million kilometers, but in 140 years will acora farther. It is a body, or rather a block of ice, cold and inhospitable surface with average temperatures that reach 223 degrees less. Until a few years ago he was considered a planet in effect, but in 2006 the International Astronomical Union has demoted to dwarf planet. Pluto, however, is now demanding a ransom, nano or nano, wants revenge and in this month of July of the big news in store.
THE THIRD AREA
After decades, finally, humanity will crown the long cherished dream: the conquest of all the planets of the solar system. Appeal lacked only he, the lord of the underworld. Today will be a historic date. It will be the day that the NASA probe, New Horizons, will enter the orbit of the last planet, or rather of the planetoid, strangest of all time who, despite himself, has two characteristics: it is the ultimate but also the first of a large population of objects of so-called third zone, the Kuiper Belt, an area on the edge of the Solar System in which lie hundreds of bodies of ice beyond the orbit of Neptune. The first to assume its existence was the Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper suggested that in 1951 the birth of comets just from this very remote area.
THE EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
New Horizons has embarked on her own journey nine years ago, in January 2006 (a few months before the declassification of a planetoid Pluto) and now stands at more than 5 billion kilometers from its home base. In his long journey in stages, the NASA probe, traveling at a speed of 50,000 km / h, has revealed the features of the planetoid and confirmed some certainties. “We have found new moons or rings like those of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. For many of us scientists was a surprise scientific – said Alan Stern, principal investigator of the mission of the day was the correct rotta-. Therefore, do not need any adjustment path to avoid potential dangers. “
FIVE MOONS
Pluto is not the lone body on the edge of the solar system, has five known satellites: Charon, Styx, Night, Cerberus and Hydra. The first, Charon, is half the size of the planetoid, is another so-called dwarf planet and goes in the same category of Ceres and Xena, large asteroids promoted to a higher rank.
As the New Horizons approaches Pluto and its area have become even more defined. And today we have the best pictures. New photos sent to earth show two quite different faces. A presents some singular dark spots, a diameter of about 500 kilometers distributed along the equatorial line. The planet was discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, February 18, 1930, by Clyde Tombaugh and christened in honor of Pluto, the god of the underworld in Roman mythology; the first letters of the name, PL, are also the initials of the astronomer Percival Lowell, who first postulated their existence.
THE METHANE
“And finally you can also see its colors. Like Mars, but for different reasons, it is red, pinkish – said Simon Porter NASA – the colors and the features of its varied terrain are being defined in the images. Even now we can say that Pluto is unlike any other body in the solar system. “
Meanwhile discoveries of New Horizons multiply. The last in order of time the presence of methane. “A mixture primordial – scientists have speculated – content in the cloud of gas and dust that gave birth to the solar system 4.5 billion years ago.” To count down the last few minutes, then the secrets of the god of the underworld will be revealed.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015, 11:47 – Last Updated: 13:05
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