Pluto and Newest Astronomy Discoveries

Pluto has under gone many changes in our long time views of it. New discoveries just keep giving us more to digest on our solar system. On August 24th, 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defined the word planet, and due to the definition they came up with, Pluto was no longer considered our ninth. Found in 1930, by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, our once furthest planet from the son, Pluto is now called a dwarf planet. It has also been demoted from being the largest object on the Kuiper Belt, and now stands second in line behind Eris, another dwarf planet. (July 2007) It became classified under the number 134340. Pluto was now called a dwarf planet under the IAU's required guidelines. (1) This means that it is a non-satellite celestial body that orbits the sun, and holds an almost round shape (hydrostatic equilibrium).

It has been suggested recently (July 10th, 2007), that Pluto's moon, over half its size, Charon, has a water ice leaking from it, or perhaps geysers within it. Researchers won't know for sure until the spacecraft New Horizons reaches Pluto in 2015. Pictures are needed to be sure of this newfound theory, and the causes of it. At this time researchers believe that liquid ammonia may be on Charon, which acts like anti-freeze, thus preventing water from it's inner core to freeze. (2) Charon is almost completely covered with water ice. It was discovered in 1978.

In 2005, two other moons were found in Pluto's orbit. They started out with the names P1 and P2 and later became known as Nix and Hydra. The first letters "N" and "H" are attributed to the New Horizons spacecraft. The Hubble Telescope was assisting New Horizons when the 2 new moons were discovered.

In Greek mythology, Pluto was named after Hades, the God of the underworld.

In order to observe Pluto, you will need a planisphere, and a telescope with good magnification. A planisphere is defined as, "A star chart that can be adjusted to display the night sky for any given latitude, time and date," by Wikipedia.com. It has been stated that some people have seen Pluto with a 4.5 telescope, others say it can not be seen. The best advice for observing Pluto is patience. Use the planisphere to find it's location and then just relax and enjoy the time observing.

(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_definition_of_planet

(2) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19815239/