Crying pluto

Pluto

By toastytoasttoast

  • Discovery Pt. 1

    Discovery Pt. 1
    1840s - "Urbain Le Verrier predicted the position of the then-undiscovered planet Neptune after analysing perturbations in the orbit of Uranus." (Wikipedia)

  • Time

    Time
    "People assume that time is a strict progression of cause-to-effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff."
    - The Doctor
    ("Blink", written by Stephen Moffat, S. 3, Ep. 10, Doctor Who)

  • Discovery Pt. 2

    "Observations of Neptune in the late 19th century caused astronomers to speculate that Uranus' orbit was being disturbed by another planet besides Neptune." (Wikipedia)

  • Pluto-Charon System (Pt. 1)

    An interesting aspect of the Pluto-Charon system is that each item is tidally locked. One side of each only faces one side other other. (UNI)

  • Physical Characteristcs

    Because Pluto is so far away from Earth, it is difficult for us to investigate its atmosphere, structure, and other characteristics. "Many details about Pluto will remain unknown until 2015, when the New Horizons spacecraft is expected to arrive there." (Wikipedia)

  • Atmosphere

    "Pluto's atmosphere consists of a thin envelope of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide gases, which are derived from the ices of these substances on its surface." (Wikipedia

  • Classification

    Pluto is a rocky, icy dwarf planet.

  • Pluto-Charon System (Pt. 2)

    Pluto and Charon are an extreme example of a tidal lock. "Charon is a relatively large moon in comparison to its primary and also has a very close orbit. This has made Pluto also tidally locked to Charon. In effect, these two celestial bodies revolve around each other (their barycenter lies outside of Pluto) as if joined with a rod connecting two opposite points on their surfaces." (Wikipedia)

  • Discovery Pt. 3

    1906 - Percival Lowell, founder of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ (1894), started "an extensive project in search of a possible ninthe planet, which he termed 'Planet X'." (Wikipedia)

  • Discovery Pt. 4

    "Lowell and his observatory conducted his search until his death in 1916, but to no avail. Unknown to Lowell, on March 19, 1915, surveys had captured two faint images of Pluto, but they were not recognised for what they were. There are fifteen other known prediscoveries, with the oldest made by the Yerkes Observatory on August 20, 1909." (Wikipedia)

  • Discovery Pt. 5

    Due to a ten-year legal battle with Lowell's widow, the quest for Planet X didn't resume until 1929, when the project's director, Vesto Melvin Slipher, handed the job to 23-year-old Clyde Tombaugh.

  • Discovery Pt.6

    "On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on January 23 and January 29 of that year. A lesser-quality photograph taken on January 21 helped confirm the movement." (Wikipedia)

  • Name

    "The name Pluto was proposed by Venetia Burney (1918–2009), an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England. ... The object was officially named on March 24, 1930." (Wikipedia)
  • Period: to

    Satellites

    Pluto has five natural satellites that we know of.
    1. Charon (discovered 1978)
    2. Nix (2005)
    3. Hydra (also 2005)
    4. Kerberos (2011)
    5. Styx (2012)

  • Orbit and Rotation

    "Pluto's orbital period is 248 Earth years. Its orbital characteristics are substantially different from those of the planets... a small region of Pluto's orbit lies nearer the Sun than Neptune's. The Pluto–Charon barycenter came to perihelion on September 5, 1989, and was last closer to the Sun than Neptune between February 7, 1979 and February 11, 1999. ... In the long term, Pluto's orbit is in fact chaotic." (Wikipedia)
  • Period: to

    Exploration

    New Horizons was funded in 2003 and launched on January 19, 2006 with the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh (desceased 1997) on board. The craft's closest approach to Pluto will be July 14, 2015.

  • Theoretical Structure of Pluto (2006)

    Theoretical Structure of Pluto (2006)
    1. Frozen Nitrogen
    2. Water ice
    3. Rock

  • Works Cited

    Works Cited Cartoon of Pluto crying. Digital image. Battling Nightmares with Daydreams. Tumblr.com
    (Yahoo), n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. The Doctor, "Blink" (S. 3, Ep. 10). Digital image. George's Journal. WordPress.com, 13
    Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. Theoretical Structure of Pluto (2006). Digital image. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14
    Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. "Pluto." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
    "Tidal Locking." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1