{"id":5049,"date":"2012-02-18T16:24:29","date_gmt":"2012-02-18T22:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/?p=5049"},"modified":"2012-02-19T10:59:44","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T16:59:44","slug":"it-was-82-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2012\/02\/18\/it-was-82-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"It Was 82 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rise of the Dwarf Planets<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
A Hubble Space Telescope image of Pluto (central object) and its four largest moons, Hydra (upper left), Charon (lower left), Nix (lower right), and P4 (upper right). Courtesy NASA\/ESA\/STScI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

February 18th is the 82nd anniversary of the discovery of Pluto, the dwarf planet. \u00a0The find was made in 1930 by an observer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona by the name of Clyde Tombaugh. \u00a0He had spent months searching through and comparing photographic plates of the sky, looking for a possible new planet. His discovery was confirmed, and the name Pluto was bestowed on March 24, 1930. \u00a0I had the pleasure to meet Clyde at a conference some years ago, when he spoke enthusiastically about his work to uncover this distant, frozen world.<\/p>\n

Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet \u2014 which means it’s a special class of planet, much as white dwarfs are special classes of stars, and some galaxies are termed “dwarfs” based on the characteristics that differentiate them from spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies.<\/p>\n

One of the fascinating things (among many) about Pluto is that its discovery really opened up a new phase of solar system exploration, resulting the discovery of more dwarf planets \u00a0in the outer solar system.<\/p>\n

Granted, we’ve done quite a bit of solar system exploration since Clyde’s momentous discovery. \u00a0We’ve sent probes to most of the other planets, and studied them with ground- and space-based telescopes. \u00a0But, until recently, we didn’t have the technical wherewithal to do more than study Pluto from Earth (or Earth orbit, with Hubble Space Telescope<\/em>, for example). \u00a0That changed when the New Horizons<\/em> spacecraft<\/a> was launched in 2006 on an voyage of exploration of the outer solar system.<\/p>\n

New Horizons<\/em> will arrive at Pluto in 2015. \u00a0It will study the planet’s atmosphere, surface characteristics, and its nearest moons. \u00a0After that, it will continue out to other outer solar system objects \u2014 in fact, its larger mission is to study the Kuiper Belt, a region of space that\u00a0extends out from the orbit of Neptune and in\u00a0which Pluto orbits . \u00a0It’s really the gateway to all the outer solar system worlds, including Pluto.<\/p>\n

I mentioned that astronomers have found other icy worlds out in Pluto’s domain, and beyond. Eris is the most massive known dwarf planet (so far), and orbits the Sun out well beyond Pluto. \u00a0It’s an icy world roughly the size of Plut0. Then, there are Makemake, Haumea, Charon, Orcus, Quaoar, and Sedna. \u00a0They’re all smaller and more distant than Pluto, but there’s no doubt they’re worlds in their own right. Undoubtedly others are out there, making\u00a0trans-Neptunian space a sort of new frontier. \u00a0This is why I see Pluto’s discovery as momentous. So, in celebration of Pluto Discovery Day, I raise a toast to Clyde Tombaugh\u00a0\u2014 whose ashes are aboard the New Horizon<\/em> spacecraft bound for Pluto space. \u00a0Not only did he discover a dwarf planet, but he also opened the gates to discoveries in a sector of the solar system once thought empty and barren. \u00a0It’s a bigger solar system than we thought, folks, and we have visionaries like Clyde to thank for helping us figure that out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rise of the Dwarf Planets February 18th is the 82nd anniversary of the discovery of Pluto, the dwarf planet. \u00a0The find was made in 1930 by an observer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona by the name of Clyde Tombaugh. \u00a0He had spent months searching through and comparing photographic plates of the sky, looking for … Continue reading It Was 82 Years Ago<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[587,53,38,54],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt Was 82 Years Ago - The Spacewriter's Ramblings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2012\/02\/18\/it-was-82-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It Was 82 Years Ago - The Spacewriter's Ramblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Rise of the Dwarf Planets February 18th is the 82nd anniversary of the discovery of Pluto, the dwarf planet. \u00a0The find was made in 1930 by an observer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona by the name of Clyde Tombaugh. \u00a0He had spent months searching through and comparing photographic plates of the sky, looking for … Continue reading It Was 82 Years Ago →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thespacewriter.com\/wp\/2012\/02\/18\/it-was-82-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Spacewriter's Ramblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-18T22:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-19T16:59:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/images\/content\/571869main_p1123a1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"C.C. 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