In 1930, a object was discoverd in our solar system which was the farthest at that time. By the time eight planet had been already known in solar system and it was placed at 9th and named as Pluto. By the end of 20th century, it was considered as planet for obvious reason but with technological advancement many object of similar size of Pluto had been discovered which were part of the Kuiper belt ( outer belt of our solar system) . With the discovery of a trans Neptunian object Eris which was more massive than Pluto, brought the planet status of Pluto in question. Pluto's unconventional orbit which crosses Neptune orbit, caused it to be a minor planet and since then it is known as dwarf planet.
Being a smallest and farthest object of solar system, Pluto was assumed as dead planet untill New Horizon spacecraft flew by the Pluto and send some spectacular images of the Pluto. Pluto's 98% surface is composed of Nitrogen with some traces of methane and carbon monoxide. Through images, it is found that in some part of Pluto methane is in abundant and in some part Nitrogen and carbon monoxide are in abundant ( that surface is named as Sputnik Planitia). The color of Pluto have been varied from charcol black to orange and white. Pluto's western lobe which is named Sputnik Planitia, is a thousand km wide basin of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide, divided into polygonal cells. These cells have been interpreted as convection cells that carry floating blocks of water ice crust. Through the images of New Horizon, it can be assumed that Pluto is still a living planet and some kind of mysterious geomorphological activities are happening there.
Scientists have expected Pluto with a dense silicate core and water ice mantle. It is possibility that there might be a subsurface ocean of liquid water at core mantle boundry which act as source of heat for ice volcanoes on Pluto surface. As Pluto's temperature is nearly or below -200°c, water latent heat would be enough to activate volcanoes on the surface.
Pluto has five satellites and Charon is the closest one. Pluto and charon system bring the barycenter out of the Pluto. It means that Pluto orbit a point of outside itself. It is due to the sufficient mass of charon.
The New Horizon which flew by Pluto in 2015, is the only attempt has been to observe Pluto directly. Just through this attempt, many information of Pluto have been unfolded and many questions too have been unfettered. The more we think that we understand world, more we found it mysterious. To understand and explore deeply, we need another a Plutocentric mission.
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