Pluto

No, I'm not talking about the cute Disney character, but instead the equally cute planet... Or dwarf planet... We'll get to that in a second, but first, some funny pictures:

Src: "I fucking love science"

So why all the recent hype about Pluto?
    Why, NASA's "New Horizons" spacecraft, of course. If you haven't already heard from much quicker journalists, the New Horizons Spacecraft just made its closest approach to Pluto, collecting data and pictures which will take months--if not years--to be received and sifted through by NASA's miniature army of scientists and interns:

Mission Success, July 14, 2015 in the Mission Operations Center (MOC) of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Maryland. Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls

    This landmark achievement by NASA has granted us many new insights into the previously unexplored space iceberg.

Pluto and Charon size comparison

    For one, we finally know the previously debated size of Pluto, and it clocks in at roughly 2,370 km (1,473 mi) in diameter. Slightly larger than previously thought, but sadly still classified as a dwarf planet. That brings us to the topic of dwarf planets, what is a dwarf planet exactly?

According to space-facts.com, a dwarf planet:

• Is in orbit around the Sun,
  
• Has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape,
  
• Has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and
  
• Is not a satellite.

    Since Pluto has not cleared out all the other asteroids and things with it's gravity (possibly due to its lower-than-once-thought mass), and it is quite frankly much too small, it is not a regular planet. But it is not an asteroid either, as it is too massive and maintains a steady orbit, and therefore scientists had to come up with this new class of non-planet planets. Especially once new dwarf planets were discovered besides Pluto, some distinction had to be made and sadly--but completely necessarily--Pluto ended up on the other side of the fence.

    Another discovery on Pluto was a series of geologically active, icy mountains. These mountains appear very young in our very old solar system, and may still be forming today, and so far removed from the sun's (or any other) influence, geologists can only guess as to what is causing these formations to occur. “This may cause us to rethink what powers geological activity on many other icy worlds,” said GGI deputy team leader John Spencer at SwRI.

Pluto's heart-shaped icy mountain region (bottom) | Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI

    We now finally have been able to get up close and personal with Pluto's previously mysterious moons.

Charon | Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

Charon, the largest (and previously known about) moon is especially worthy of note. At 1208 km (751 mi) across, Charon is over half as big as Pluto itself, and is equally--if not more--geologically active than it. There is a distinct lack of craters to be found on Charon, possibly due to an internal geological process (like on earth) whereby fractured crusts are absorbed and replenished in the center of the moon. 

Hydra | Credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI

Hydra, arguably the most mysterious moon is shown in preliminary images with an extremely irregular shape (left), as if it were an asteroid that somehow got caught in Pluto's gravity and made it into orbit, without being rounded off. Estimated at about 43 by 33 km (27 by 20 mi) in size, Charon is likely coated in water ice as well as methane ice, but we'll have to wait for more data to come in to know more.
The other \three moons Nix, Styx, and Kerberos have not been observed as of yet by the craft, so stay tuned for updates on them.

    New Horizon may have just made its closest approach to Pluto, but its fly-by is far from over and the data is far from being complete, so please watch out for more updates as they come along. For now, you can learn more about Pluto, New Horizons, and its mission at NASA's website here:

• Cool Gif that I sadly couldn't post here because of usage rights laws: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/views-of-pluto-through-the-years
• New Horizons main page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
• Some vids for those of you who would rather watch than read:
  
  • https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiuUQ9asub3RUlLBXMFGq8aFEPS5yONT2
  • http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/videos/index.html
• Meet New Horizons: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/spacecraft/index.html
• Complete image gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/images/index.html

   This event will no-doubt go down in history as a landmark discovery as to the nature and possible origins of the solar system, and shape how we view and explore space for years to come. So, all in all, I believe New Horizons was ten years, three billion miles, and  $700 million well spent... better to be spending tax dollars on intellectual advancement than war, right? Sources (aka plagiarism protection): uhh... NASA... http://space-facts.com/dwarf-planets/