The solar system is comprised of different categories of planets including the terrestrial planets and jovial planets. Pluto was previously classified as a smaller planets in the puter space. However, it has recently been demoted to a dwarf planet. This paper discusses different characteristics of pluto. Pluto was first discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 at the age of 24. He made the discover after building a telescope that he used to view planets and then drawing them on a piece of paper. Previously, several astronomers had predicted its existence. However, none of them had been able to estimate its exact position especially due to the irregularities of Neptune’s orbit. After the discovery of pluto, there was a lot of excitement among scientists all over the world. Several names were suggested for the new planet (Stern et al., 2015). The name’Pluto’ was proposed by an eleven-year-old girl who had received the news of the finding from the grandfather.
lt was accepted considered as the ninth planet until 2006 when it was demoted to a dwarf planet. Pluto has a giant moon known as Charon. lt is described as a remnant of water ice underneath the surface years ago. The size of Pluto was established in 2015 by the New Horizons space research team. Pluto is a fifth less than the earth’s diameter and two-thirds the size of the moon. The dwarf planet has a density of 1.8 and 2.1g/cm3 (Spencer et al., 2016). Pluto has a diameter of 2,370 km. Pluto is farther from the sun compared to other planets. As a result it takes a very long time to revolve around the sun. Pluto orbits at an average speed of ten miles per second, covering a distance of 3.6 billion miles away from the sun forty times further from the sun than earth. lt takes Pluto 247.9 Earth years to revolve around the sun where the temperatures in Pluto are three hundred and sixty to four hundred below zero.
Pluto is composed of ice rocks formed from frozen gases and water. The planet holds 50-70% of stones and thirty to fifty percent of ice (Stern et al., 2015). Pluto is categorized as a terrestrial planet. The surface is therefore defined by rocks, mountains, and ice. Pluto has mysterious high mountains, such as the Rockies. lt has flat plains just below the high peaks, as well as vast white areas covered by ice. Pluto also contains frozen gases such as methane, nitrogen, and carbon oxide moving during glacial activities (Spencer et al., 2016). Glacial activities form extensive glacial features of frozen gases and ice forming mountains according to the horizon’s research.
Regardless of the size and weak gravity of the planet, it has an atmosphere consisting of low pressure of ten microbars. lt is considered considerably weaker than the surface pressure of the earth. lf the temperatures of about two hundred and eighty mill bars three times as the mars planet were to rise in pluto, the ice would sublime into gases. Stern et al. (2015) indicates that the lowest records of pressure taken in Pluto were four microbars. The highest level was thirteen microbars. The variations can be attributed to seasonal variations.
The atmosphere is comprised of ice just like the surface. lt has twenty thin layers with methane, ethane, and ethyne gases giving pluto the red color. The gases are converted to methane, ethane and ethyne through radiation from the sunlight. The atmosphere keeps disappearing depending on the intensity of the radio waves (Gladstone et al., 2016). lt is feared that pluto’s atmosphere could collapse due to the distance from the sun which causes the nitrogen to condense over the surface.
The geology of pluto is defined by nitrogen ice as glaciers and an expansive ice sheet. More discoveries have show ammonia surface flows namely Virgil fossae. They have caused the recent geographical process of cryovolcanism. Water in Pluto is frozen to form very hard bedrocks forming ice rocks and high mountains. The mountains rise to about six kilometers above the surface. lf radioactivity was to occur, ice rocks and other ice features would melt the entire planet making it an ocean such as Jupiter’s moon. Pluto’s core is rocky and surrounded by an ice sheet crust (Spencer et al., 2016). The planet also has the potential of having a nitrogen frozen lake on its surface. However, this has not been established yet. The inner structure of Pluto is thought to be mysterious due to the strange features and the manner in which features react to heat and pressure.
The inner surface consists of a core surrounded by a thick mantle of ice.
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_system_level1/pluto.html 40%
The inner surface consists of a core surrounded by a thick mantle of ice.
The ice and rocks are reflected by dark and white marks from the outside. The chemical composition in the planet includes frozen gases which reflect sixty percent of the incoming sun rays (Spencer et al., 2016). Charon and moon have different structures caused by lighter gases that have migrated to Pluto due to low gravity in Charon. Charon is darker than moon and is comprised of frozen water.
Pluto is the loneliest and most isolated planet due to its distance from the earth. The cold nature of Pluto could not support human life for long because of the low levels of light reaching the planet from the sun. Human beings require light and warmth to survive. lf people were to live in the planet, they would end up freezing out. Pluto’s atmosphere cannot support life because of its weak and thin nature air which continuously depletes as it moves away from the sun. Gases in the atmosphere become ice when temperatures are shallow (Gladstone et al., 2016). Pluto also has lower gravity compared to earth. Therefore, people would weigh less in Pluto and might be suspended in the air.

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