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NASA Probe Spies Possible Polar Ice Cap On Pluto
astroengine writes: As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft rapidly approaches Pluto for its historic flyby in July, the dwarf planet is gradually sliding into focus. And in the latest series of observations beamed back from the fringes of the Kuiper belt, surface features are becoming evident including the stunning revelation that Pluto may possess a polar ice cap. "As we approach the Pluto system we are starting to see intriguing features such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole, starting the great scientific adventure to understand this enigmatic celestial object," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington D.C. "As we get closer, the excitement is building in our quest to unravel the mysteries of Pluto using data from New Horizons."
Pluto got the shaft. Pluto is round, having reached a hydrostatic equilibrium due to it's own gravity. It orbits the Sun. It's a planet!
...starting the great scientific adventure to understand this enigmatic dwarf celestial object, ...
Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
A meteoroid scraped off the first "A" in the probe's "NASA" logo
Table-ized A.I.
Always take your medications prior to posting.
How about this scary thought: Water is really turning out to be the Universal Solvent. It is everywhere we look. That has profound implications for the possibility, no probability, of life throughout the galaxy and beyond.
It also strongly suggests that future planetary missions should be sure to stock some WD-40.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
OMG! yes, she's 13.
It's the Death Star's aiming laser. The damned thing has to be re-categorized yet again...
Table-ized A.I.
"a bright region near Pluto's visible pole"
But how do they know its ice? It could be frozen CO2, Nitrogen, methane, or some other gas.
Pluto is pretty damn cold.
If we are thining about terraforming Pluto, I propse we send the IAU there to warm it up with their hot air.
the dwarf planet
You have some problem with little planets? What's next: midget planet?
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
Most of Pluto is going to be ice. Is the cap solid Nitrogen?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Pluto got the shaft. Pluto is round, having reached a hydrostatic equilibrium due to it's own gravity. It orbits the Sun. It's a planet!
And so are thousands of trans-Neptunian objects.
How are the kids going to learn the name of 2000 (at the very least) damn planets orbiting our sun. Think of the kids !!!!
You place way too much importance on terminology, and act like it changes things that it doesnt. Regardless of whether or not the Pluto a planet, astronomers are quite aware of the mutual influence. The name doesn't change the existence of the effect when talking about such dynamics in literature, as one just talks about the Earth and Moon. Beyond Pluto and Earth, there is not some long list that needs to be consolidated into a specially named category. Not to mention that the influence between the Earth and the Moon exists between all planets and their moons, similar to Pluto. The terminology is just there to save the effort if it makes it easier to write and read a long list of your complains. But beyond the succinctness of such, it doesn't make much difference one way or another to me.
Terminology is important in science. Terminology aids in classification, and classification is the very first step in understanding natural phenomena. Take a look just over there in radioastronomy. 3 decades ago we had quasars and radio galaxies and then blazers etc.... Today we classify them under the name Active Galactic Nuclei. It's important because it means what we thought were different physical objects/phenomena are actually the same thing.
Pluto is a dwarf planet, like thousands of other dwarf planets orbiting around the sun in the Kuiper belt. They are the remenants of the early solar system. Pluto is discarded material (more like a giant planetesimal). Not so for Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Mercury.
I would expect the whole surface of the (dwarf) planet to be ice, much like all the other outer system objects too small to be gas giants. It would not necessarily be water ice and TFA did not suggest that it was water. In a region where methane and co2 freeze there are lots of options and water ice would not be favorite for a polar cap.
Actually, the only information so far is: "There is a spot that is brighter than the rest. We don't know why."
It could have been just as easy for the scientific definition to provide an exclusion for an existing classification of just one planet.
Just as primes could have been defined to include the number one. But when you make an exception in the definition, then a lot of uses might need to make that definition too. Hence, if one counted as a prime number, there would be many theories that make a reference to "all primes except one." The only point of such classification is to make communication more concise, not to make some sort of valuation or judgement about things that fall into or out of a category.
Don't blame me. I Googled for Pluto not a planet.
Have gnu, will travel.
Good for them. Make them learn something... Why, back in my day I had to come home from school, split fire wood, then study by candle light. 9 planets or 90. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, don't call it a chicken.
So SHUT UP!
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
...Why such a cold object would have a polar icecap? Surely Pluto is cold enough all over to freeze anything.
Unless it has an internal source of heat, like the Earth.
Do they have to know every planet there is? Just teach them the important ones ie the 9 that we've always known. We don't teach kids every animal species there is out there, why should it be important to know the names of all the 2000 planets out there.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, don't call it a chicken.
Except if it's one of these.
"...distance from Pluto decreased from about 69 million miles (93 million kilometers) to 64 million miles (104 million kilometers)"
Pluto got the shaft. Pluto is round, having reached a hydrostatic equilibrium due to it's own gravity. It orbits the Sun. It's a planet!
So is Ceres, and Ceres was discovered 130 years before Pluto.
It was demoted from planet to asteroid, but you don't hear anyone bitching about that. Did Ceres run around screaming "I'm the 10th planet!" ?
At least Ceres is by far the biggest asteroid. Pluto is probably just one of many large Kuiper Belt objects.
Since WD40 is designed to displace water, this is very true.
Obviously, when I wrote "we've" I was referring to the post 1930s generation who were taught that theres 9 planets not 8. Same as I am not referring to the currently generation when I wrote "we've" because they being taught that theres 8 again.
If you go back even further there were even less than 8 planets. OMG!