Journey to discover Pluto

New Horizons was the first spacecraft to successfully reach Pluto after a nine-year long journey, nearly 5 billion kilometers, opening new research directions since the dwarf planet was discovered in 1930.

History of discovering Pluto

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, successfully approaching Pluto earlier this week. It is responsible for mapping the surface of Pluto and the moon as the moon Charon , to explore the dwarf planet's atmosphere and perform temperature measurements.

The image of Pluto is taken from New Horizons.(Photo: ITN)

The history of discovering Pluto has come a long way since it was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. At that time, world experts organized a name search competition for the new planet. Venetia Burney, 11, in Oxford, England, chose the name Pluto for this dwarf planet because it was dark and distant from Earth, like the name of the god Hades in ancient Greek mythology (the Romans called Hades as Pluto). Venetia then receives a prize worth £ 5 (about 8 USD).

Pluto is smaller than Mercury and 7 moons in the solar system, including Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton and Earth's natural satellites. 20 years in 248 years orbit, Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune. In the period 1979-1999, Pluto was the 8th planet in the solar system, the ninth planet was Neptune.

Because Pluto is a god in ancient mythology, the main satellite of this planet - Charon - is named after the person carrying the soul across the River Styx to the underworld. Its other natural satellites are called Nix, Styx, Hydra and Kerberos. Some astronomers hypothesize that Pluto is just a Neptune "escaping" satellite and has its own orbit. The time for sunlight to reach Pluto is 5 hours.

Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh died on January 17, 1997. According to his last wish before his death, the ashes of Clyde are traveling with the New Horizons spacecraft of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA).

American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.(Photo: Telegraph)

The probe carrying the small box was printed with the words: " This is the ashes of Clyde W. Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto and the third region of the solar system."

The Pluto dog character in the Disney cartoon was first created into the same year Tombaugh discovered this dwarf planet. Venetia Burnley confirmed that the name she thought of was unrelated to Disney's character.

In 2005, scientists found another dwarf planet named Eris. Originally, it was identified as a celestial object outside Neptune and it is unclear whether it could be accepted as a new planet. Since then, two other planet-like bodies have been discovered.

Trying to observe Pluto from Earth is likened to looking at a walnut from a distance of nearly 50 km.