Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, born 1906

Clyde Tombaugh, born February 4, 1906 in Streator, Illinois, is the man who discovered Pluto, then the ninth planet in the solar system.  Based on the observations of Percival Lowell, Tombaugh finally discovered Pluto in 1930.  He discovered many asteroids and minor planets.  Asteroid 1604 Tombaugh, which was discovered in 1931, is named after him.

He passed away in January 1997 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Pluto's Heart is available today on Amazon!

My latest short story Pluto's Heart is now available from JMS Books! 

Follow this link to order it on Amazon!


Read an excerpt here:

“Atmospheric pressure and standard temperature have been established,” the computer said. “You may now safely remove your helmet and space suit.”

“Finally,” he muttered. It took him almost five minutes to remove his suit, down to the nylon overalls he wore underneath and scanned the interior of the building. It appeared to be more machine shop than scientific outpost. Almost every square meter of the space was occupied with machinery and scientific equipment. A narrow path wound between the mountains of apparatus, just wide enough for him to pass through. Brian took a tentative step forward and his foot falls seemed to echo.

A noise from somewhere inside grabbed his attention and he made his way toward the sound. An opening appeared before him as he stepped around a stack of containers. A small living space, about three meters by four meters sat among the piles. It had a low bed, an exercise station and a kitchenette. A chamber jutted out from the wall into the room and Brian could see a toilet and shower inside.

A lone figure sat at a table, his back to Brian, hunched over a piece of scientific equipment.

“Zack?” Brian spoke in a soft voice, as not to startle him. How could he have not heard me enter? The airlock is not quiet, and the computer voice was loud enough to hear through my helmet.

The figure turned around

“Brian?” The red-bearded face appeared greyer and more drawn then when Brian had last seen him and Zack seemed thinner, but he was still the handsome man Brian fell in love with years ago.

Zack wore overalls similar to the one Brian had on, and heavy boots. He walked toward Brian who held his arms out for a hug.

When he got close enough, Zack punched him hard in the face. Brian fell back, landing on a pile of luggage straps.

He lay still for a few seconds, stunned, pain shooting through his skull. When the shock subsided, Brian struggled to get his feet and cleared his vision, noting Zack had not moved.

“Not the reception I was expecting,” Brian said, rubbing his cheek where Zack’s fist had connected, feeling the stubble that had grown during his trip.

“What did you expect?” Zack snapped. “You’re responsible for me being stranded on this fucking rock! Did you think I was going to welcome you with open arms and on my knees?”  His voice rose to a shout.

“Wait a minute,” Brian retorted. “You left me!  You wanted to come out here to get away from me!”

“I did not leave you,” Zack yelled.  “I was told you wanted to break up with me and the next thing I knew, I was shipped out to this frozen cesspool.”

“I was on the other side of Titan when you left,” Brian argued.  “We hadn’t talked for several days, so who told you I wanted to break up?”

Zack pressed his lips together and did not respond.

“Maybe the same person who told me you requested this assignment?”

“Assignment?” Zack looked surprised. His expression changed to amusement and he burst out laughing. “Do you think this is an assignment?” He spat out the last word. “This is a fucking death sentence,” he continued shouting. “We are never getting off this goddamned planet. At least I’ll have the satisfaction knowing you’re stuck here too. And will probably die here.  With luck before me.” He turned and walked back to his workstation.

Eris, the most massive dwarf planet, discovered 2005

Eris, discovered January 5, 2005, is the most massive dwarf planet in our solar system, but slightly smaller than Pluto.  The team of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz discovered Eris from pictures taken in October 2003 and made the announcement in July 2005.

It has an orbit of 558 years and at its closest approach to the sun it is 37.91 astronomical units.  At its maximum, it is almost three times that distance at 97.65 AU.  Eris has one moon named Dysnomia, which, in Greek mythology, is the daughter of Eris.

Although more massive than Pluto, Eris is slightly smaller.

New Horizons spacecraft will flyby Ultima Thule New Year's Day 2019

The little spacecraft that could (and is still going strong), New Horizons will make a flyby of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule on January 1, 2019.  It will be the farthest celestial body ever visited by a spacecraft. 

New Horizons made an historic flyby of Pluto in July 2015 and NASA was searching for a KBO suitable for it to study.  Ultima Thule was discovered using the Hubble Telescope in 2014 and chosen to be the next target. 

Ultima Thule is an irregular shaped object, being two smaller bodies orbiting each other at close range, or a contact binary system (two bodies joined together).  It will take 6 hours for signals to reach Earth from New Horizons.

New Dwarf Planet the 'Goblin' Discovered!

Yesterday, scientists announced the discovery of a new dwarf planet, the Goblin, orbiting the sun far beyond Pluto.  Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institute for Science, Chadwick Trujillo of Northern Arizona University and David Tholen of the University of Hawai'i first spotted the Goblin in October 2015, when it was a mere 80 AU (about 7.4 billion miles) away.  One AU is the distance between Earth and Sun.  It took them three more years to confirm its existence and given the official name 2015 TG387.  Since it was first discovered around Halloween 2015 and its initials include TG, they dubbed it "The Goblin".

The scientists can only detect such objects when they are closest to the sun.  Otherwise, they are too distant and too faint to be seen, due to their elliptical orbits.  The Goblin joins two other dwarf planets beyond Pluto, Sedna and 2012 VP113 (such a romantic name).

Sheppard and Trujillo proposed the existence of a Planet X, a large planet, about 10 times more massive than Earth, orbits the sun about 600 AU and the orbits of these dwarf planets are like 'bread crumbs' leading them to the elusive Planet X.

Newfound Dwarf Planet 'The Goblin' May Lead to Mysterious Planet Nine

https://apnews.com/fa16fca0a19c43888986bd95f7c3de2d

First images of Kuiper Belt objects taken by New Horizons

New Horizons spacecraft, which made a flyby of Pluto in July 2015, took images of two Kuiper Belt objects, the farthest images from Earth ever captured by a spacecraft. 

These are falso-color images of 2012 HZ84 and 2012 HE85 are the closest-ever pictures of Kuiper Belt objects.

New Horizons is the fifth spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system at about 700,000 miles a day.  It made a course correction back in December to set it on its way to visit dwarf planet MU69 on January 1, 2019. 

NASA releases video of New Horizons Flyover of Pluto and Charon

Is this cool or what?  NASA scientists have created videos of Pluto and its moon Charon from the data received from the New Horizons spacecraft from its flyby two years ago.

Check these out!

New Horizons launched toward Pluto 2006

The New Horizons spacecraft, launched January 19, 2006, performed the first flyby of Pluto, exceeding everyone's expectations.  New Horizons reached Pluto (now 'dwarf planet') in July 2015 and sent back gigabytes of data which NASA scientists will be studying for years.

New Horizons took pictures of Pluto's surface as well as its moons, giving us a much better understanding of Charon.

Buoyed on the success of the mission, the New Horizons team requested and has been granted an extension.  New Horizons is headed toward 2014 MU69, a large body in the Kuiper Belt, arriving in 2019.  It will study other trans-Neptunian objects as well.

New Horizons spacecraft flies by Pluto a year ago

One year ago today, the New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto and its moon Charon.  Since then, NASA scientists have made numerous discoveries about the now-dwarf planet, such as craters, mountains and seas of solid nitrogen.

Last month, scientists discovered super-grand canyon on Charon that makes Arizona's Grand Canyon look like a scratch!







http://www.nasa.gov/feature/a-super-grand-canyon-on-pluto-s-moon-charon

Pioneer 10 Passes Pluto 1983

Way back on June 13, 1983, when Pluto was still a PLANET, Pioneer 10 passed its orbit and entered interstellar space.  Of course, if Pluto had been demoted to a dwarf planet at the time, Pioneer 10 would've entered "interstellar space" years before.

Pioneer 10 carries a gold disc designed by Carl Sagan, which contains depictions of a human male and human female.  It also has diagrams to pinpoint Earth's location in the galaxy, in a solar system with NINE planets.

We've put it out there, people.  We told the entire Milky Way we have nine planets in our solar system!

Pioneer 10's last signal was received January 22, 2003, when it was about 12 billion kilometers from Earth.

Hydra, Pluto's Ice Moon

NASA reports that it has received the first compositional data on Pluto's four small moons from the New Horizons spacecraft.  They outermost satellite, Hydra, is covered mostly in unspoiled water ice.  Pluto's largest moon Charon is also covered mainly in water ice, but spectral analysis suggests that ice particles on Hydra are larger. NASA has described Hydra, only 31 miles long, as resembling the state of Michigan.  I suppose if you squint real hard...  This image was taken at a distance of 150,000 miles but closer pictures might not be forthcoming.  The New Horizons team is looking forward to obtaining data about Pluto's other moons.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-icy-moon-hydra

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/new-horizons-captures-two-of-plutos-smaller-moons

Pluto's North Pole

The north polar region of Pluto, informally named Lowell Regio (for Percival Lowell), has long canyons that run vertically through this area.  In the image below, the widest canyon is about 45 miles across, with the actual North Pole indicated on the map.

The areas in red show pits where subsurface ice may have melted or sublimated from below, collapsing the ground above. 

The lines in blue and pink show winding valleys.  This image was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft from about 21,100 miles from the surface on July 14, 2015.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-frozen-canyons-of-pluto-s-north-pole

Pluto has floating hills

The vast plain, informally named Sputnik Planum within Pluto’s ‘heart' is host to a mysterious phenomenon of 'floating' hills.  Images from Pluto suggest that the mountains are composed of water ice floating on denser nitrogen-dominated ice and move like icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean.

As they flow along convection movements, they accumulate in a feature informally named Challenger Colles – honoring the crew of the lost space shuttle.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-s-mysterious-floating-hills

Pluto photographed for the first time 1930

Clyde Tombaugh took photographs of Pluto on January 23, 1930 from Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. It would be a few weeks before he realized that he had discovered another planet.  From 1930 to 2006, our solar system had nine planets, until Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet.  The New Horizons spacecraft flew by the (dwarf) planet in July 2015, sending back googols of data. 

Pluto has five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx.  But it is smaller than 7 moons of other planets: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton and our moon.

Clyde Tombaugh was 24 when he discovered Pluto.

Book Review - "The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet" by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Since Pluto has recently become the hottest spot in the solar system with new information coming in weekly from the New Horizons spacecraft, I remembered I had this book in my library, unread.  Neil DeGrasse Tyson wrote this book with diagrams and letters from children on the demotion of Pluto from planet status.  The New Horizons probe was launched in January 2006, traveling 9 years to the ‘dwarf planet’ and made its closest approach in July 2015.

On August 24, 2006, just eight months after the launch, the 26^th Triennial General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union voted by a decisive margin (90% in favor) to redefine the word ‘planet’.  Thus, Pluto was demoted and the solar system was back to 8 planets, as it has been from 1841 to 1930.

Public reaction was swift, negative and fierce.  In his book, Tyson includes emails, letters and editorials from people who were incensed by this treatment of their favorite planet.  Although the IAU was responsible for Pluto’s fall from grace, Tyson was the face of the controversy being in charge of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City, which had already excluded Pluto from the other eight planets.

Tyson’s book is very entertaining as he recounts the general populace’s emotions and feelings about an ice-covered rock some 3 billion miles away.  Pioneers 10 and 11 are somewhere in interstellar space bearing a diagram of our solar system with nine planets, but Tyson says the illustration has so many other errors, aliens will be hard pressed to trace it back here.

Kerberos, last of Pluto's moons

Data downloaded from New Horizons earlier this week shows a fuzzy image  of Pluto's moon, Kerberos.  It shows the moon is double-lobed shape, with the larger lobe approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) across and the smaller lobe approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) across.  This makes it the second smallest moon, after Styx.

Scientists previously thought Kerberos was much larger and its surface darker when it was discovered back in 2011.  Its surface is highly reflective, like Pluto's, which could mean it is covered with a layer of water ice.

A  family portrait of Pluto's moons:  Charon is by far the largest of the five.


http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/plutos-tiny-moon-Kerberos

Picking up Styx

Last week, NASA released pictures of Styx, the smallest and faintest of Pluto's five moons.  The moon is only about 4.5 miles long and 3 miles across.  Its brightness suggests a highly reflective, icy surface similar to ones found on Nix and Hydra, two other moons.  The powerful Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera was 391,000 miles away when it took photos but at that distance, it was difficult to detect details on Styx's surface. 

Blue skies and ice on Pluto

 

This dwarf planet on the edge of our solar system keeps offering surprises almost on a daily basis.  NASA reported today that the New Horizons spacecraft has found numerous, small exposed regions of water ice on the surface of Pluto.  Data collected from the Ralph spectral composition mapper, an imager to map surface compositions and temperatures, made the discovery, but only in certain areas.  Exposed ice does not appear in larger expanses, which could mean it is covered or masked by more volatile ices.

Other images sent from New Horizons show blue atmospheric hazes.  Although the particles causing the hazes are probably gray or red, they scatter blue light that indicates the size and composition of the particles.  Scientists theorize tholins in the atmosphere are the cause.

The term ‘tholin’ was coined by Carl Sagan and Bishun Khare in 1979.  In their laboratory, they produced complex organic solids from “cosmically abundant” gases, such as methane, ethane, ammonia and water.  Sagan and Khare say these particles are relevant to the origin of life.

This process was observed in the upper atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s moon, where UV light ionizes nitrogen and methane molecules.  They react with each other to form more and more complex ions.  This ionizing and recombining results in large molecules that become small particles.  Volatile gases condense on their surfaces and coat them with ice frost before they fall to the planet’s surface, giving Pluto a red color.

Charon just got cooler!

 

Pluto’s largest moon Charon has almost eclipsed its mother planet on being the hot spot in our solar system.  NASA released pictures today of Charon, revealing a ‘colorful and violent’ past.  One item of excitement is a reddish region near the north polar region, informally named Mordor Macula.

The New Horizons spacecraft captured images of mountains, canyons, landslides and more.  Scientists have discovered a huge canyon that stretches more than 1000 miles, across Charon’s entire face and it probably extends to the other side.  It is four times longer than the Grand Canyon and twice as deep in some places.

The smoothness of the moon south of the canyon is evidence of wide-scale resurfacing, possibly due to ‘cryovolcanism’, a cold volcanic activity.  Check out the video below!

New Horizons is still transmitting data and will continue for the next year. 

New pictures from Pluto!

 

New pictures from the New Horizons spacecraft have been released from NASA.  These pics were taken just 15 minutes after the closest fly-by.

 

No doubt Pluto will continue to fascinate us for many years to come.