Rocketing into the future.How much do you know about Pluto, the outermost out·er·most adj. Most distant from the center or inside; outmost. outermost Adjective furthest from the centre or middle Adj. 1. planet in our solar system solar system, the sun and the surrounding planets, natural satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets that are bound by its gravity. The sun is by far the most massive part of the solar system, containing almost 99.9% of the system's total mass. ? If your answer is "Not much," you're not alone. "What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp," said Colleen Hartman, a NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. administrator. That is why so many people were thrilled by the successful launch of the New Horizons space probe last month. "The textbooks will be rewritten after this mission is completed," said Hartman. That won't happen overnight. New Horizons is the fastest spacecraft yet, bur the tiny icebound ice·bound adj. Locked in or covered over by ice. Adj. 1. icebound - locked in by ice; "icebound harbors" frozen - turned into ice; affected by freezing or by long and severe cold; "the frozen North"; "frozen pipes"; planet is 3 billion miles away. Even at 47,000 miles per hour, the trip will take nine years. In 2015, the craft will fly by Pluto and Charon, one of its moons. Instruments on board will send images and data back to Earth. Pluto was first spotted in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, a U.S. astronomer. Soon after, ir was named--by an 11-year-old girl. Now 97, Venetia Burney Phair says, "We have stepped so far into the future since the 1930s." |
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