Dwarf planet Pluto

What for us becomes the most interesting, and at times and frightening? Secret. Unexplored. Inexplicability. And this applies to absolutely any area. Even the cosmos. Or rather, especially space. Since it is the cosmos that conceals in itself a myriad of unanswered questions and frightens us with its unpredictability and lack of study. One such attracting mystery is the planet Pluto, the planet most remote from our solar system, discovered as early as the 1930s. Although later, when studying older photographs dated 1914, this planet was seen again.

Observations that are currently underway give enough knowledge to even determine whether Pluto is a planet or not. It looks like a star with a fifteen-magnitude magnitude. Mars, perhaps, would also have a similar shine, being at the same distance from us. And this means that Pluto, perhaps, has the dimensions of Mars. A more accurate estimate of the diameter of the planet was given in the 1950s. J. Koiper managed to measure the angular diameter, equal, according to his testimony, 0 ", 23. If" to translate "our measurements, the diameter will be 2900 km.

In 1968, from April 28 to the 29th, 12 observatories waited until Pluto passed by another star equal in size. In theory, if the Kuiper was not mistaken in size, Pluto had to close it. But the brilliance was not weakened. And this said that Pluto in diameter no more than 5500 km. The mass of Pluto was even harder to calculate. He had no companions, the comets around him did not pass.

American astronomers R. Duncombe, P. Seidelman, E. Jackson and Polish astronomer V. Klepchinsky carried out a tremendous work: they processed 5426 observations on the position of Neptune during the period from 1846 to 1868 and found out: the mass of Pluto, in relation to the terrestrial, is 0.11. So is the mass of Mars, but Pluto is less than Mars. Taking for him the calculated mass, the diameter of about 5500 km, we get the average density of Pluto - 8 g / cm ^ 3, and this is too much. In 1978, J. Christie makes an unexpected discovery: he finds in old photographs a satellite of Plutonium. The discovery was confirmed by a four-meter reflector of the observatory in Cerro Tololo. It is the treatment of the satellite that helped to determine the mass of the Pluto itself: 1.1 10 ^ 25 g, and this is 1/500 of the mass of our Earth! And it is these calculations that made it possible to make a new statement: the planet Pluto among the planets of our system is the smallest!

Well, the temperature, in theory, should be on it about 40 K. At this temperature condensation of methane is proceeding. So, methane ice may well be on Pluto. Observations in 1977 confirmed the assumption that the infrared spectrum finally allowed us to consider the characteristic bands. A little earlier, in 1970, with a 60-centimeter reflector, bands were found that looked like traces of iron absorption. In 1930, March 12, another message appeared: long-term searches and studies by Lowell of the interesting planet behind Neptune finally led to the discovery of a new, unknown object, the trajectory and speed of its seven-week motion corresponded to the body, consistently located behind the orbit of the planet Neptune, at a distance indicated by Lowell, the magnitude is the fifteenth. Soon, the astronomical world decided to give the planet a name - the planet Pluto, the most suitable for it, since the motion of the planet took place in the unlit, outer areas of our solar system. The first two letters used in the title are the initials of Percival Lowell, who claimed the existence of an unknown planet still dead one year after the published prediction.

The discovery of Pluto could take place back in 1919. There was an accident. Then Milton Houmanson made calculations of the possible position of the planet, photographed the area of its possible position and obtained images of this planet. A part of the images got an emulsion and it was not possible to prove the presence of a heavenly body . The planet Pluto was waiting for its discovery ... Already in the 1930th, knowing reliably about the existence of Pluto and its orbit, it became possible to identify the images obtained earlier.