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After 9 years since launch,
After travelling 5 billion miles
The new Horizons satellite probe has reached pluto and is currently taking mass readings and photographs of the very distant micro planet.
Once considered one of the 9 planets of our solar system, they now teach children of only 8 with pluto dropped from the list in recent years.
On board the new Horizons probe, which is approximately the size of a piano, are the ashes of the very man that discovered pluto in the early 20th century.
How poetic.
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To me it will always be a planet but apparently size does matter....
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dwarf planet
noun
ASTRONOMY
plural noun: dwarf planets
- a celestial body resembling a small planet but lacking certain technical criteria that are required for it to be classed as such.
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@Anonymous wrote:
Did we not send a probe to Uranus as well? Seem to recall one being launched a few years back?
No dedicated probe has been, however, many probes have visited uranus and have gone deeper than before.
In 1986 voyager 2 was at uranus studying it's icy ring.
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This from NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-pluto-k4.html
Why Is Pluto Not Called a Planet Anymore?
In 2003, an astronomer saw a new object beyond Pluto. The astronomer thought he had found a new planet. The object he saw was larger than Pluto. He named the object Eris (EER-is).
Finding Eris caused other astronomers to talk about what makes a planet a "planet." There is a group of astronomers that names objects in space. This group decided that Pluto was not really a planet because of its size and location in space. So Pluto and objects like it are now called dwarf planets.
Pluto is also called a plutoid. A plutoid is a dwarf planet that is farther out in space than the planet Neptune. The three known plutoids are Pluto, Eris and Makemake (MAH-kee-MAH-kee). Astronomers use telescopes to discover new objects like plutoids.
Scientists are learning more about the universe and Earth's place in it. What they learn may cause them to think about how objects like planets are grouped. Scientists group objects that are like each other to better understand them. Learning more about faraway objects in the solar system is helping astronomers learn more about what it means to be a planet.
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Gene Roddenberry....Now there's a man who had vision and imagination. I and millions of other trekkies will be forever indebted to him....
"In 1986 voyager 2 was at uranus studying it's icy ring" 
ok i've stopped laughing now.....dam my dirty mind!!
