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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151015-pluto-probe-space-planets-report/

Back in the early 2000s, planetary scientist Alan Stern was challenged to predict what the New Horizons probe would find when it got to Pluto. Stern refused to take the bait. “Something wonderful,” is all he would say.

Sure enough, that’s what the spacecraft found when it sped by the dwarf planet last July at more than 30,000 m.p.h.—a tortured, highly varied landscape that pointed to a living, geologically active world rather than an inert blob hovering at the frozen edge of the solar system.

Even now, three months after New Horizons’ close encounter, scientists are just beginning to get a handle on what’s going on with Pluto and it’s large, equally intriguing moon Charon. But what they know already, laid out in a new paper in Science, is impressive—and deeply perplexing.

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I think Pluto is the amazing underdog planet that everyone tried to demote, take it out of the solar system, and dropped it off of scholastic picture charts, but it surprised a lot of people with the revelation of it's unique appearance and it's complex environment.

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Pretty interesting stuff.
I wonder if at some point Pluto will get its planet status back. It would be kind of ironic if the one planet in our solar system that got "demoted" turns out to be the only planet besides Earth that has life on it.

One thing about this strikes me as a little bit puzzling or contradictory. Not directly contradictory but.. well - here's what I mean by that.
There have been fairly recent news articles talking about far distant stars where the scientists give pretty detailed information bout the types of materials / gases / etc that are on the star - all based on their calculations of the light wave frequencies and such.

Then they finally get a probe close to Pluto and the space scientists are amazed and surprised at the water and the hydrocarbons and so on and so on.
If those super long range telescopes are so great at telling them the minerals / composition of some far distant star(s) then how come all this stuff about Pluto is a surprise?

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I love hearing about Pluto, this is the most amazing things that have happened in my lifetime, other then legalizing pot.

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Pluto shouldn't be considered a dwarf planet. It should be considered, at least, an exoplanet.

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Pluto always been my favorite planet and hearing new things is always nice.=w=

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i feel a bond with this distant planet.
i'm happy to hear it's as mystical as i always felt it is.

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Yay for Pluto~

I just imagine Sailor Pluto jumping for joy, saying 'yeah we have life here too bitches, make me a planet again!'. Hope that happens someday, but even if it's said that Pluto will never be a planet again I still believe it is.

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i don't think that all of the things we've discovered about pluto will allow it to get planetary status back--there are too many other factors involved in what makes a "proper" planet, and we'd have to do a lot of reclassification for other celestial bodies similar to pluto if we made an exceptions for it. p:

however, i am glad that we've gotten the chance to learn so much about pluto in our lifetime! i hope that what we discover about pluto will help us learn a lot more about our solar system as well--and potentially maybe objects outside of our own system, who knows! i'm very eager to see what else we can discover.


David2074

(i hope you don't mind me quoting you about this, btw, but i thought i'd try to help clarifying things!)

as for the stars and their constitutions, i assume it's a bit easier to figure out things like that when all stars are made up of the same gases, as well as some traces of heavier elements (though this depends on the size and age of the star in question).
it's also probably a bit easier to study things that emit light and other particles, like stars do, as opposed to trying to study pluto from a distance, considering its size and distance from us. its irregular orbit doesn't really help that fact, either; if it was hard enough trying to get decent quality images of it at its closest, there's no way we would be able to get anything better unless we sent something out to it.

this is a pretty good site for astronomy facts; they've even got sections for the sun as well as stars in general. referenced it a bit in this post, but the site goes way more in depth than i can, and perhaps you'd find it more reputable than a random person online. p:

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David2074
If those super long range telescopes are so great at telling them the minerals / composition of some far distant star(s) then how come all this stuff about Pluto is a surprise?


I've asked someone studying in this field the same question. What I bolded is what part of the answer is. The long range equipment looking at exoplanets operate on a different level than the more close range stuff we have for our solar system.

While it's cool to find out all these things on exoplanets, its kind of ridiculous we don't have equipment that can check out our solar system besides rovers and probes that cost too much with under-funding.

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David2074
If those super long range telescopes are so great at telling them the minerals / composition of some far distant star(s) then how come all this stuff about Pluto is a surprise?


I've asked someone studying in this field the same question. What I bolded is what part of the answer is. The long range equipment looking at exoplanets operate on a different level than the more close range stuff we have for our solar system.

While it's cool to find out all these things on exoplanets, its kind of ridiculous we don't have equipment that can check out our solar system besides rovers and probes that cost too much with under-funding.


Well, I'm no expert in that field so - maybe - I guess.
But it still seems to me that Pluto is far enough way to not be "too close" for them to measure light frequencies and such if they can do it to stars many, many, many times farther away.

But thanks for the reply.
And maybe what your friend said is accurate. Just sounds odd.
And as a comparison - seems like I have heard similar statements about passing comets. As in - stuff like "We know from our observation it is composed of this and this gases and chemicals and so on". And those comets are much closer than those far away stars so probably a better comparison to the Pluto thing.

Kawaii Shoujo

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I remember back when I was a little kid I did a report on Pluto, the teacher only gave me a C- for it( the lowest grade), probably because I didn't ask if I could switch my topic... when she never told us we had to ask.

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Pluto shouldn't be considered a dwarf planet. It should be considered, at least, an exoplanet.



All my life I've been over the top
I don't know what I'm doing
All I know is I don't wanna stop


                  But..... It orbits the Sun....

                  I'm a fan for calling Pluto a planet again, but I don't think it fits the definition for an exoplanet.



All fired up, I'm gonna go till I drop
You're either in or in the way
Don't make me, I don't wanna stop

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Silenced Nocturne
Srintella Tiagara
Pluto shouldn't be considered a dwarf planet. It should be considered, at least, an exoplanet.



All my life I've been over the top
I don't know what I'm doing
All I know is I don't wanna stop


                  But..... It orbits the Sun....

                  I'm a fan for calling Pluto a planet again, but I don't think it fits the definition for an exoplanet.



All fired up, I'm gonna go till I drop
You're either in or in the way
Don't make me, I don't wanna stop


Generally, from what I understand about the term exoplanet it's still a planet. (Might have to be classified outside of our system though but hey! Its a planet!)

In all honestly, exoplanets come in all sizes out there.

Yes, though I do want pluto a planet.

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Srintella Tiagara
Silenced Nocturne
Srintella Tiagara
Pluto shouldn't be considered a dwarf planet. It should be considered, at least, an exoplanet.



All my life I've been over the top
I don't know what I'm doing
All I know is I don't wanna stop


                  But..... It orbits the Sun....

                  I'm a fan for calling Pluto a planet again, but I don't think it fits the definition for an exoplanet.



All fired up, I'm gonna go till I drop
You're either in or in the way
Don't make me, I don't wanna stop


Generally, from what I understand about the term exoplanet it's still a planet. (Might have to be classified outside of our system though but hey! Its a planet!)

In all honestly, exoplanets come in all sizes out there.

Yes, though I do want pluto a planet.



All my life I've been over the top
I don't know what I'm doing
All I know is I don't wanna stop


                  And Explanet is a planet that orbits a star or another mass (Ex black hole) besides our sun.

                  I don't think it can be classified as that as it's not even beyond the Kuiper belt, it's in it!

                  I think even if it was around another star, they'd still tag it as a dwarf planet because of it's size though, it'd just have the term exoplanet along with it.



All fired up, I'm gonna go till I drop
You're either in or in the way
Don't make me, I don't wanna stop
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