#PlutoFlyBy Countdown: T minus 5 Days to Flyby!

I think a "Congratulations" is in order for Team Planet Earth (mostly NASA)!  I'm applauding the achievements, and achievements very soon to come, of the New Horizons Mission!  Most of all the information I'm about to relay to you was pulled from this AMAZING article at Space.com:

How NASA's New Horizons Mission to Pluto Works (Infographic)

Article written by Karl Tate, posted March 30th, 2015.

 (I'm also sprinkling my own  research in the mix).

Allow me to provide an appreciation for these achievements from my perspective:
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in the early Fall of 1977 (two months before my dad would leave for Chicago as a Navy recruit reporting for basic training).  The Voyager probes did not reach beyond Pluto's orbit until February 1990 (three months before my brother was born).  Voyager 1 took the first "Family Portrait" of our Solar System on Valentine's Day 1990.  Capturing us, Earthlings, upon the infamous "Pale Blue Dot."  Look closely at the orange/brown streak of light beam on the right side of the screen.  Slightly more than half way down that beam, is little us.  The Pale Blue Dot.

Photo Credit: NASA JP

From this vantage point Voyager 1 did not flyby Pluto.  Pluto was busy revolving around the Sun at a different spot on its orbit.  Voyager's voyage took 12 and a half years to reach the Pluto orbit proximity that the New Horizon's Probe is quickly approaching!

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006 (the day after my second ultrasound of my firstborn child).  And now!  On July 14, 2015, 9 and a half years after launch, New Horizons will make its historical Pluto flyby!!!

Three years shaved off a Solar System journey guys!  Well done!

Greeting Pluto, the first time:

Photo Credit: AP/NYPost

The discovery of the planet Pluto is credited to Clyde Tombaugh on January 23, 1930 (my grandfather was as old as my daughter, Jaymee Belle, is now; almost 6 years old!).  

The naming of Pluto came from 11 year old Venetia Burney via her grandfather's networking with astronomers in touch with Lowell University.

Venetia's grandfather, Falconer Madan, was retired at the time, but had been the Bodleian Head Librarian at Oxford University.  One morning in March 1930, Venetia suggested naming the newly discovered planet "Pluto" at breakfast, and later that day Madan dropped a note to friend and astronomer, Herbert Hall Turner (an Astronomer Royal title holder and professor at Oxford). Coincidentally, that was the on the same day the Royal Astronomical Society was having a meeting to brainstorm names for this new cosmic neighbor; none had suggested Pluto.  In May 1930, Pluto was officially named, crediting Venetia Burney.  Not a tremendous amount of fanfare resulted and, sadly, Venetia never actually got to meet Clyde Tombaugh.  But Venetia has a respected and firm hold on her stake on this mysterious planet.  Pluto is a great name.
If you're interested in more information recorded as a transcript from the primary source herself, click here: Venetia Burney Podcast

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Quite an empowering story to tell your young ones.  

Great ideas are not just had by adults.

Now on to give you some excellent perspective on Pluto from the article linked at the beginning of this blog:

Photo Credit: Karl Tate

Check that out!  Now I've seen some people speculate that because of the dynamic Pluto shares with its major moon, Charon, resembling the same relationship our Earth has with our Moon, that perhaps Charon provides a frictional atmospheric heating on Pluto.  Charon would have the same tidal effects from the gravity dance it twirls Pluto with.  But we know Pluto is in Zone 3 of our Solar System, in the icy Trans-Neptunian, Kuiper Belt, and its atmosphere is 90% nitrogen and is frozen, settling these gas molecules on the surface during significant periods of time on its more distant orbital paths around the sun. BUT!  The other 10% of Pluto's atmosphere is made up of other complex molecules like methane!  Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen with trace amounts of methane in the gaseous 1% left!  The presence of methane excites me!  Methane is a smelly component of carbon based life existence, but nonetheless a red flag for life!  I'm under no illusions that there's intelligence on that planet, but how peculiar is that atmosphere's nature?!

So here's the trajectory path of the flyby next week:

Photo Credit: Karl Tate

Will you be throwing a PlutoPalooza next Tuesday?  If so, check this out for great resources to host your own PlutoPalooza event!  http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Participate/community/Plutopalooza-Toolkit.php

Free family party at Scobee Education Center on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm!  Join the event now:  Plutopalooza! Celebrating New Horizons Arrival to Pluto