BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Pluto - it's a whole new story now

Our views of Pluto have changed over the 85 years of our acquaintance. Not just our ideas - which are getting a real thumping now! - but literally what we see of it. This little animation shows our view of Pluto from blurry pixels at Lowell Observatory to the mountain ranges photographed by New Horizons on the fly-by. The page also identifies each of the images in the animation.

The animation goes very quickly but it's on a loop so it repeats. I had to watch it several times to see everything.

Mona, thanks for keeping us informed on Pluto!

One recent report said that Pluto had regained its status as the largest Kuiper Belt Object. In fact, it had never lost it, because its rival Eris isn't a Kuiper Belt Object. It's actually much farther away than the Kuiper Belt in what's called the scattered disk.

But Pluto is back to being acknowledged as the largest [known] dwarf planet, slightly larger than Eris. It hadn't been possible until now to say exactly what Pluto's diameter was because we didn't know how thick its atmosphere was.

Eris is nonetheless about 25% more massive than Pluto.

Here is what I wrote about Pluto and Eris three years ago. No updates available about Eris, but I have some revisions to do about Pluto!

I have now revised and updated the article "Eris and Pluto - They're not Twins".

Mona, thank you for your articles on the planets - makes understanding so much easier for non-scientists.

Thank you, Susan. With all the space missions in the last few years, I realize that it isn't just Pluto that I need to revisit in my articles.

Everybody is taken with the vaguely heart-shaped plain. I'm going to write something about it later, but meanwhile this graphic made me smile.

yes, it is good to see the humor in nature ...

What?? So Pluto is back to being a "Planet?"

I will always say it's a planet. Kind of irked me when they stripped Pluto of its title.

Sheryl, I've always thought of Pluto as a planet, also!