Visit science.nasa.gov for more. Dwarf planet Pluto is a world of mystery waiting to be visited for the first time. NASA’s New Horizons probe is racing across the solar system for a ground breaking close encounter that could dramatically alter what researchers “know” about Pluto and other small worlds.
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10Sep
Posted by Pluto @ 12:19 am
Tags: dwarf planet, Kuiper Belt, NASA, New Horizons, Pluto, Science Mission Directorate, Science@NASA News, sciencecasts, SMD
14 Responses
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
2015?? oh…… I’ll have forgotten about it by then!
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
why cant nasa put a fix satalite in each of the planets orbit like we have on earth
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
I still call Pluto a planet, it does have four moons *rolling eyes*
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
We want “Google Pluto”. Google, are you listening? 🙂
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
I can’t wait!!!
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
4 years? couldn’t they just add that satellite couple more rockets?
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
Please, they prefer to be called ‘little-planets’ or ‘planet of restricted growth’
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
@NoodlesNDM1 you r not the only one 🙂
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
I fucking love these uploads
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
@Caprican28 – No, New Horizons will fly right by Pluto and then pass beyond to the Kuiper Belt to see what it can find out there
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
If it’s going that fast I’m assuming it uses retro rockets to slow it down opposed to Pluto’s (lack of) decent gravity?
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
@DavidOD11850 They cannot collide because Pluto is far above Neptune.
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
@DavidOD11850 That was a good question! I found your answer – they will never collide because Pluto’s orbit is inclined 17 degrees from the elliptic (the plane of the solar system on which most planets orbit. Plus their orbits are in a 2:3 resonance, Pluto orbits twice for every three orbits of Neptune.
Source – Jim Lochner & Karen Smale from Ask an Astrophysicist March, 1997
September 10th, 2011 at 12:19 am
Wait, when it showed plutos orbit at one point it went through neptunes orbit circle Thingy 😛 but does this mean that at sometime in the future Pluto will hit Neptune?