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(After music is over, step on foot pedal to zoom in camera and brighten lights.)
Good afternoon. This is Space Today, XXXXX reporting. / Opening Title and Music
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In our top story…exciting new images of Pluto revealed by NASA’s New Horizons mission.
The existence of an unknown ninth planet was first proposed by Percival Lowell in 1906 but it wasn’t until 1930 that the discovery was made. / Percival Lowell observing.jpg
Clyde Tombaugh was a young astronomer working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. He was given the task of performing a systematic search for a trans-Neptunian planet, also called Planet X, which had been predicted by Percival Lowell and William Pickering. / Clyde W. Tombaugh.jpg
On 18 February 1930, after nearly a year of searching, Tombaugh discovered a moving object on photographic plates taken on the 23rd and 29th of January. This was the discovery of Pluto. / Pluto discovery plates.png
Fast forward 76 years and NASA launched the first mission to Pluto.
The New Horizons spacecraft launched on January 19th, 2006 aboard an Atlas V rocket. / Launch clip
It would take 10 years and 3 billion miles before New Horizons reached Pluto. On its journey it had a close encounter with Jupiter testing the spacecraft instruments and capturing valuable information about the Jovian system. / NH animation clip
Once past Jupiter’s orbit, New Horizons entered an 8-year cruise phase where it would pass the orbits of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. / NH animation clip
Finally, on July 14, 2015 New Horizons flew within 7,800 miles of Pluto. / NH Pluto flyby video
As New Horizons approached the Pluto system, images began revealing tantalizing details. We could see that Pluto and Charon had varied surfaces, perhaps indicating complex surface geology. / Pluto Charon Coming Into View
Just two days before the historic fly-by, the New Horizons spacecraft snapped what is arguably now the most famous image of Pluto. Dominating the image is what is being called the “heart of Pluto” or more formally as Tombaugh Regio, after Pluto’s discoverer. / Heart of Pluto
One day after the fly-by, the world saw the first stunning images of Pluto. This was taken from within Tombaugh Regio. Here, we see mountains not made of rock, but of water ice! The extreme temperatures on Pluto cause this water ice to freeze as hard as rock. These mountains rise as high as 11,000 feet high. / Mountains on Pluto
What surprised scientists most was the lack of impact craters. Like the rest of Pluto, this region would have presumably been bombarded by space debris, leaving behind a multitude of craters. The lack of craters indicates that this is a young surface and that these mountains likely formed only 100 million years ago. They may even still be in the process of building!
This is one of the youngest surfaces that we have ever seen in the solar system, which was completely unexpected. / Mountains on Pluto 2
Further evidence of how young this region is was found in the northern area of Tombaugh Regio, in an area named Sputnik Planum. Scientists found nitrogen ice flows that are believed to behave like glacial flows on Earth. The flow front of the ice moving into Sputnik Planum is outlined by the blue arrows. The origin of the ridges and pits on the right side of the image remains uncertain. / Sputnik Planum annotated.jpg
After its close encounter with the Pluto system, New Horizons turned around to snap this beautiful image of Pluto’s atmosphere. What we see in this image are layers of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide haze that extend five times further than what had been predicted. Not only was it amazing to be able to see Pluto’s atmosphere for the first time, but it also gave scientists clues about the surface. / Pluto Atmosphere
That haze, and particularly the methane haze, has interesting effects with they interact with high energy particles from the sun. The methane in the atmosphere will absorb the Ultraviolet light and start to break up. As it breaks up, it reforms into something called hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons clump together to make even more complex molecules as they fall to the ground. Once they reach the surface, they cover it in a dark, tar-like substance. This is what scientists believe is responsible for the dark area on Pluto’s surface, like we see in Cthulu Regio next to the heart feature. / Map of Pluto
Combined with other recently downloaded pictures, this new image also provides evidence for a remarkably Earth-like “hydrological” cycle or water cycle on Pluto – but involving soft and exotic ices, including nitrogen, rather than water ice. / Pluto Mountains CloseUp2.jpg
Since Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, astronomers have been speculating about even more distant planets. So far, no large planets beyond Pluto have been found. / Image looking back at sun from beyond Pluto (PIA08003)
However, astronomers have found several Pluto-sized objects which we call trans-Neptunian objects. In fact, Eris shown here is a bit more massive than Pluto and was one of the primary discoveries that led to Plutobeing called a dwarf planet instead of a planet. / Family photo of Pluto-sized objects. (EightTNOS_new)
In recent news the analysis of the orbits of 13 even more distant objects called Extreme Trans-Neptunian Objects have hinted at the presence of two or more large planets (perhaps the size of Earth) well out beyond Pluto. Isn’t that exciting? In the meantime the New Horizons mission is on its way to it next target, a Trans-Neptunian Object called PT1. / Image of New Horizons near it next target. (PathtoPluto-Missiontimeline-beyondPluto2)
Who knew how exciting the distant solar system could be? I look forward to updating you on a future edition of Space Today about what New Horizons discovers next.
Until next time, thank you for joining us for this edition of Space Today. This is xxxxx, signing off. / Space Today Slide
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