Pluto’s ‘Heart’ Hints at Its Rich Geological World
When the New Horizons mission flew past Pluto in 2015, it discovered a geologically rich world, not the cold, dark landscape many expected. Almost immediately, researchers discovered two features, named Mount Wright and Mount Piccard, which were suspected to be ice volcanoes, and further study confirmed their identity.
Planet or not a planet? Pluto’s status raises serious questions about how to define any object in the solar system
The current debate over Pluto highlights the difficulties in defining the concept of “planet.” The IAU defines a planet as a celestial body orbiting the Sun, having a nearly spherical shape, and having largely cleared its orbital environment of space debris. But even this set of criteria is not universally accepted.
The most general and up-to-date information about the “former” ninth planet of the Solar System – Pluto
Pluto is the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. It was previously considered the ninth and farthest planet from the Sun. In 2006, its status was downgraded. This strange world is located in the Kuiper Belt—a region beyond Neptune filled with hundreds of thousands of rocky, icy bodies, each over 100 kilometers in diameter, as well as 1 trillion or more comets. Pluto ceased to be a planet in 2006 when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet, sparking controversy and debate in the scientific community and among the general public.
Recent studies of Pluto’s moon Charon have revealed that it contains water ice, ammonia and organic compounds, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide
Charon is a medium-sized body, approximately 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) wide, located in the Kuiper Belt—a ring of icy debris, comets, and dwarf planets, also called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), at the edge of the solar system. Unlike many larger Kuiper Belt objects, Charon’s surface is not covered in volatile ices like methane, allowing scientists to gain valuable insight into the influence of sunlight on cratering these distant bodies. Furthermore, Charon is the only medium-sized TNO for which geological mapping is available. This was made possible thanks to data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which visited the Pluto system about a decade ago.
Planet Nine is a hypothetical extra planet lurking in the far reaches of our solar system
For nearly a decade, astronomers have been scouring the outer reaches of the solar system for signs of a hypothetical ninth planet, to no avail. However, experts say we may finally be on the cusp of discovering it. Deep in the outer reaches of the solar system—so far from the known planets that the sun would barely be distinguishable from the nearest star—a vast, icy world may be lurking in the shadows, waiting to be discovered. More evidence has emerged of a hypothetical extra planet lurking in the farthest reaches of our solar system, and these clues lie in icy bodies that cross the orbit of Neptune on long, winding orbits around the sun.