My six year old sister came home one day saying how the scientists blew up Pluto. She said they talked about it in class? I wasn't sure what she meant, assuming it was about Pluto not being a planet anymore.
2007-07-18 16:55:42 · 9 answers · asked by Kim D 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It has been reclassified as a dwarf planet. As far as I know its still out there.
Kids. What will they say next?
2007-07-18 16:58:47 · answer #1 · answered by Lady Geologist 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, Pluto did not blow up.
I read an article on the web today that Charon, its moon has a liquid core and ammonia volcano's that spout water which falls to the surface and freezes.
Pluto never blew up or exploded, but the Earth did. Early in the formation of the Earth the still cooling ball of rock was hit by another large asteroid like object which ripped a piece off it; this became the moon. Scientists theorize this because moon rocks are so similar to earth rocks and even appear to have been produced by the same forces.
Pluto is considered a dwarf planet because their are so many other astronomical bodies of a similar size that it would mean we would have dozens and dozens of planets and we wouldn't know all of them yet. This was a very controversial issue, but means little. Pluto is still there and traditionally it has been called a planet. So I call it the traditional 9th planet.
The Ort Cloud and the Kiper Belt are zones of unformed planets similar to the well known asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Comets and asteroids that go into the inner solar system either come from the Ort Cloud or the Kiper Belt. Pluto is just another Kiper Belt object now.
2007-07-18 17:01:05 · answer #2 · answered by Dan S 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pluto - also designated 134340 Pluto, is the second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-largest body observed directly orbiting the Sun. Originally considered a planet, Pluto has since been recognised as the largest member of a distinct region called the Kuiper belt. Like other members of the belt, it is primarily composed of rock and ice and is relatively small; approximately a fifth the mass of the Earth's Moon and a third its volume. It has an eccentric orbit that takes it from 29 to 49 AU (4.3–7.3 billion km / 2.7–4.5 billion mi) from the Sun, and is highly inclined with respect to the planets. As a result, Pluto occasionally comes closer to the Sun than the planet Neptune.
Pluto and its largest satellite, Charon, are often considered a binary system because the barycentre of their orbits does not lie within either body. However, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has yet to formalise a definition for binary dwarf planets, and until it passes such a ruling, Charon remains a moon of Pluto. Pluto has two known smaller moons, Nix and Hydra, discovered in 2005.
From the time of its discovery in 1930 until 2006, Pluto was considered the Solar System's ninth planet. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, however, many objects similar to Pluto were discovered in the outer solar system, most notably the scattered disc object Eris, which is 27% more massive than Pluto. On August 24, 2006 the IAU defined the term "planet" for the first time. This definition excluded Pluto from planethood, and reclassified it under the new category of dwarf planet along with Eris and Ceres. After the reclassification, Pluto was added to the list of minor planets and given the number 134340.
2007-07-18 17:04:33 · answer #3 · answered by lost_soul 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, sure. They blew it up. That's how adamantly the IAU felt about their new definition of the word planet. Pluto didn't fit the definition, so they destroyed it.
Honestly. Pluto is what Pluto has always been. A big chunk of ice orbiting the Sun at the fringes of the solar system. It's still out there. It hasn't changed. The only thing that's different is the word they will use to describe it in future textbooks.
Pluto called just the other day to let everyone know he's fine. He's just fine. And Charon's fine too. How are you?
2007-07-18 17:03:10 · answer #4 · answered by stork5100 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Pluto has not blown up. It is not considered a planet anymore because of its size. It is part of the Kuiper Belt.
2007-07-18 16:59:56 · answer #5 · answered by ed 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no its still there so is Eris another trans neptunian object a little bigger than Pluto & further out so if pluto is a planet & eris is bigger that means we now have 10 planets with pluto still being the smallest.
2007-07-18 17:15:28 · answer #6 · answered by Who Dat ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
no they dint blow up a plut they just disregarded it from the list of planet.....it just means its not a planet anymore or matterfact it never was it was just a misunderstanding
2007-07-18 17:05:42 · answer #7 · answered by Nishant P 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it didn't blow up. It just became a dwarf planet
2007-07-18 17:34:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes the last space shuttle shot a ray beam at it just for kicks
2007-07-18 18:12:26 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋