When it comes to space, it's almost shocking how much we don't know versus how much scientists, researchers, and astronauts have discovered. We know a lot about Mars thanks to its robot population, but there are so many mysteries about every planet in the solar system -- including Earth, which has some eerily Mars-like places, too! One planet that is technically no longer a planet yet is still a source of scientific fascination is Pluto, which was reclassified but hasn't been forgotten.
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Despite Pluto's recategorization as a dwarf planet in 2006, the same year, an unmanned spacecraft was launched to explore the fired planet. It took until 2015 for the craft to reach Pluto's orbit, but the information it sent back to Earth was intriguing. Here's what scientists have learned since firing Pluto as a planet.
"New Horizons was the first spacecraft to encounter Pluto, a relic from the formation of the solar system." -- NASA
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7 It Takes At Least Nine Years To Get To Pluto
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Although the New Horizons spacecraft left Earth's orbit in 2006, it took all the way until 2015 to reach Pluto. Despite a super fast liftoff -- it was the "highest launch velocity attained by a human-made object relative to Earth" -- it turns out it takes a long time to travel the 4.67 billion miles to the former ninth planet. Estimates suggest that a human-driven spacecraft would take as many as 20 years to reach Pluto.
New Horizons max speed: 36,400 mph
For reference, an airplane travels at under 700 mph, but also sticks to lower elevations versus blasting through Earth's atmosphere!
A gravity assist maneuver was used to accelerate the spacecraft past Jupiter, which cut a full three years off the vessel's trip.
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6 Pluto's Surface Features Icy Mountains
Data Processed from Raw Images of the Nasa Probe New Horizons
A 2015 flyby mission to Pluto revealed stunning images of the former planet's surface -- and it's full of icy mountains. Given that New Horizons was the first craft to do a flyby of Pluto, it makes sense that images of the dwarf planet were previously limited. However, New Horizons snapped photos of Pluto's icy mountains, which might be surprising given how old Pluto was assumed to be.
Highest peak on Pluto: 11,000 feet
5 Pluto Might Be Still Be 'Geologically Active'
Hubble photomap of Pluto
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Pluto's surface is mostly ice, but it could be warm enough in its core that geological activity still happens on the surface. That's according to findings from New Horizons and other research; the dwarf planet's glaciers, mountains, and possible ice volcanoes all hint that things are still happening inside Pluto and on the surface, according to sources like Smithsonian. In fact, it's thought that Pluto may even have an internal ocean.
"There are hints that Pluto could have an internal water-ice ocean today." -- NASA
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4 Pluto Has Some Seriously Distinct Seasons
View of Pluto's surface from New Horizons spacecraft
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As Pluto orbits away from the sun, its atmosphere condenses and freezes. What does that mean on the surface? Apparently, Pluto has some distinct seasons. In fact, there is continuous sunlight in the summer and complete darkness in the winter -- but the seasons are very different from the way we experience them on Earth. As one of New Horizons crew member Alissa Earle explained in a blog post, Pluto has distinct seasons thanks to a tipped axis (Pluto has a 119.5-degree tilt versus Earth's 23-degree tilt) and its elongated orbit. That extreme tilt means Pluto's seasons are drastic -- reaching temperatures that are colder than Mars and Earth's coldest city -- and last a LONG time!
Because Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the sun, its "seasons" last over 100 years!
"A summertime high might only be "in the 70's" as measured in Kelvins -- about 330 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius)." -- Alissa Earle
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3 Pluto Also Has Clouds
Can you imagine clouds on a frozen, icy planet far from the sun? Turns out, Pluto has some. Of course, the clouds are probably made of methane and nitrogen, unlike Earth's clouds, which are mostly water and ice crystals. Interestingly, what researchers presume to be clouds are generally spotted at dawn and dusk -- but not the same dawn and dusk that Earth has.
A day on Pluto lasts 153.3 hours, or 6.4 Earth days!
"To hunt for clouds, the New Horizons team looked at data from LORRI and another instrument, the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera. In high-resolution images, the team spotted several bright smudges at seemingly low altitudes that blocked Pluto's surface. They appeared at Pluto's dawn and dusk, when lower temperatures would allow condensed clouds to form." -- Eos
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2 There's A Heart-Shaped Region On Pluto
Sputnik Planum region of Pluto, including heart-shaped feature
In 2015, the New Horizons mission found Pluto's heart. That is, a structure that is shaped like a heart but continues to befuddle geologists here on Earth. The crater, named Tombaugh Regio, is thought to be relatively young, given that it has no impact craters inside it. However, another explanation is Pluto's presumed internal heat, which is thought to spur geologic activity on the surface and smooth out some of Pluto's blemishes.
"Judging from impact craters, it's clear that Sputnik Planum couldn't be more than 100 million years old." -- Jeff Moore, NASA
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1 Pluto Has More Moons Than We Thought
Visualization of Pluto's moons
Earth only has one moon (except for its mini moon, that is!), but Pluto is built different. Since Pluto was fired from being a planet in 2006, researchers have discovered two more moons: Kerberos and Styx. Pluto has five moons total, with the first discovered back in 1978. In 2005, two more were discovered, with the final two coming along after Pluto had been reclassified. Fittingly, all of Pluto's moons are named for mythological features relating to the underworld. After all, Pluto is the Roman name for the Greeks' Hades.
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Pluto's moons
Moon
Discovered
Charon
1978
Nix
2005
Hydra
2005
Kerberos
2011
Styx
2012
References: Space.com, NASA, University of Arizona News, Smithsonian Magazine, Eos, Cool Cosmos by Caltech