Pluto
Pluto
Auditorio di Nihilo
EARTH-450
Satellites of Saturn &
Jupiter
Amir Salaree
Monday / May1 20, 2013
Saturn ...!
2
Roadmap





Who is pluto?!
Timeline
Facts
Pluto System
New Horizon Mission
3
Papé Satàn, papé
Satàn aleppe!!
4
WHO is Pluto?
Theogony (Hesiod) – CowEyed Plouto!
Pluto – Plouton (Demter and Lasion's son) -- Hades
Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany, ca330 310 BC
Plutus – Ploutos (God of Wealth -- Conflated with)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California,
USA, ca350 - 340 BC
5
February 18, 1930: Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
Timeline
1977-1999: Pluto's lopsided orbit brings it slightly closer to
the sun than Neptune. It will be at least 230 years before
Pluto moves inward of Neptune's orbit for 20 years.
1978: American astronomers James Christy and Robert
Harrington discover Pluto's unusually large moon, Charon.
1988: Astronomers discover that Pluto has an
atmosphere.
2005: Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope
announce the discovery of two additional moons of Pluto.
Named Nix and Hydra, the little moons may have formed
at the same time as Charon did, perhaps all three splitting
off from Pluto in a giant impact event.
2006: NASA's New Horizons mission launches on a path
to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt region. The spacecraft
is scheduled to reach Pluto in 2015.
NASA
NASA (2005)
(2011)
(2012)
2006: The International Astronomical Union classifies
Pluto as a dwarf planet and recognizes similar worlds
beyond the orbit of Neptune as plutoids.
2011: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope
discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet.
6
FACTS
* Pluto's orbital plane is off the
planetary plane by 17°
* Pluto has an atmosphere
* Pluto exhibits variations in albedo
(0.49 – 0.66)
* Pluto has Seasons
* Pluto has 5 moons
(Charon, Nix, Hydra, P4, P5)
Hubble Space Telescope
(2005)
7Grundy, et al
NASA
(2013) 2012
Pluto System
Pluto:
HST, 2010
8
Pluto System
Pluto:
Binzel (1990)
9
Pluto's Albedo
Stern et al, 1988
10
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
Pluto:
Semimajor
axis
(106km
)
Sidere
Eq.
al
Eccentr Inclinati
period
Radiu
icity
on (deg)
s (km)
of Rev.
(days)
Mass
(1024
kg)
Density
(kg/m3)
Siderea
Surfac
l period
e
of
Temper
Rotatio
ature
n
(K)
(days)
Pluto
5936
90,465
0.253
17.13
1157
0.015
1100
-6.387
50
EART
H
149.6
365.25
636
0.0167
21
-
6378
5.973
6
5515
0.9972
70
288
11
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
Pluto:
ESTIMATED SIZE AND MASS of Pluto initially were biased upward because some astronomers
erroneously thought Pluto's gravity was disturbing the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. After decades
12 fitted to the plummeting
of downward revisions, some astronomers whimsically noted that a curve
estimates of Pluto's mass indicated that the planet would vanish in 1980! Analyses of Charon's
Pluto System
13
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
Charon
FERRYMAN OF HADES
Charon, Gustave
Dore, The
HST, 2011
Divine Comedy,141861
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
Charon
FERRYMAN OF HADES
Pluto and Charon
(1978) 15
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
Nyx
GREEK GODDESS OF NIGHT
Nyx, Ahmolean Meuseum, Oxford,
UK, ca 425 – 375 BC
16
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
Hydra
THE NINE_HEADED SERPENT
The Hydra and Heracles, C6th B.C., J. Paul Getty
Museusm, Malibu,
17
Pluto System
Pluto has 5 moons ...
P4 & P5
Vulcan & Cerberus
?
SETI Institute (2013)
18
(a)
(b)
(d)
(e)
(c)
Two bodies with:
a) the same mass orbiting a common barycenter (similar to the 90 Antiope system)
b) a difference in mass orbiting a common barycenter external to both bodies, as in the Pluto–Charon system
c) a major difference in mass orbiting a common barycenter internal to one body (similar to the Earth–Moon system)
d) an extreme difference in mass orbiting a common barycenter internal to one body (similar to the Sun–Earth
system)
e) the same mass orbiting a common barycenter, external to both bodies, with eccentric19
elliptic orbits (a common
situation for binary stars)
New Horizon
New Horizons Mission Objectives
- Map surface composition of Pluto
and Charon
- Characterize geology and
morphology of Pluto and Charon
- Characterize the neutral atmosphere
of Pluto and its escape rate
- Search for an atmosphere around
Charon
- Map surface temperatures on Pluto
and Charon
20
Kuiper Built
21
Kuiper Built
22
New Horizon
23
New Horizon
24
Why Pluto Is No Longer a Planet ...
25