Considering my passion for the Universe and all that it holds, I was astounded when I found an article that had focused on activity on Pluto, one of the former 9 planets of the Solar System. I still believe and am faithful to the fact that Pluto is a planet, considering that this is what I've been taught since elementary school. In this particular article, published in the Science News magazine, Marc Buie, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., talks of his study of the "long thought dormant chunk of ice and rock" and how recent and rather sudden changes in its color are more striking than they seem. Although it seems to be minimal news, it is extremely surprising to Buie, as well as anyone in that field of research. Out of all of the nearby celestial bodies, Pluto seemed to have the greatest change in color. Buie found this dramatic change to be almost inexplicable, where the only reason he could think of was that of Pluto's "248-year orbit around the sun, which provides the body with seasons that are highly unequal in length".
On a completely irrelevant note, considering that Pluto was technically kicked out of the Solar System, I found it very ironic that now we seem to go back to studying its changes much like we would study the changes of the traditional planets.
For further interest, you could read the article by
Clicking Here .
I wish Pluto was still a planet too. I remember memorizing the nine planets in the third grade. Unfortunately, advancement in technology led us to discover a "planet" in 2003 that was further out than Pluto, made of the same ice/rock mixture and also larger in size and mass. It was named Eris. I guess if Eris couldn't be a planet then Pluto shouldn't be either. My definition: if it has seasons and orbits the sun then it's a planet.
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