Saygushkin Ruslan

The material - research the work of a 2nd grade student of MBOU "Lyceum No. 3", a member of the NOU students society. In his work, Ruslan explores the most mysterious planet solar system Pluto is trying to solve all its mysteries.

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Introduction…………………………………………..…………………..2

I. History of discovery………………………………………….……..…...3

II. Physical characteristics………………...……………..…….3 - 4

III. Riddles of Pluto…………………………………………………………….4 – 7

1. The first riddle. Dimensions and weight.

2. The second riddle. Internal structure of the planet

3. Riddle three. Surface of Pluto

4. Riddle five. Satellites.

IV. Conclusion……………………………………………………………8

Information resources…………………………………………...…...9

I. INTRODUCTION

Since ancient times, the sky has attracted man's gaze. After all, there is so much more hidden in the sky unsolved mysteries! I really love looking at the starry sky. Especially if mom or dad is nearby. Therefore, when in a lesson on the surrounding world we began to study the planets, I was very happy. But on the textbook page " The world"(author A.A. Vakhrushev) I discovered a contradiction.(Appendix No. 1 ) In the text of the textbook it was written: “Nine planets revolve around our Sun.” And nearby in the picture of the solar system only eight planets were depicted. Pluto was missing. The teacher suggested that I figure out this contradiction on my own. It turned out that Pluto is the most mysterious planet in the solar system. I thought that the mysteries of Pluto would be interesting not only to me, but also to many other inquisitive guys. I decided to solve them.

Before doing the work, I set myself target : explore the mysteries surrounding the history of the discovery and exploration of Pluto.

To achieve this goal, you must complete the following tasks :

1. find and study material on the discovery and exploration of Pluto;
2. solve mysteries related to the history of the discovery and exploration of Pluto;
3. find answers to them at the level of modern knowledge.

II. OPENING HISTORY

Also in early XIX century, English scientists suggested that there was another planet in the solar system. The existence of Pluto was predicted by an American astronomerPercival Lovell. Scientists threw all their efforts into searching for the ninth planet and gave it the name “Planet X”. But to prove the existence celestial body scientists were able to do so only 90 years later.(Appendix No. 2) American scientist Clyde Tombaugh spent a year taking pictures of the night sky. He worked 14 hours a day and managed to prove that Planet X exists. Clyde was born into a poor family. When he was 12 years old, he looked at the Moon for the first time through a telescope. And from that moment his passion for astronomy began. When Clyde graduated from high school, his classmates wrote a prophetic phrase in the alumni book: “He will open new world" He was unable to study further. The parents had no money. But he decided to study astronomy himself and made a telescope himself.

After opening new planet The question became: what to call it? Offers began to arrive from all over the world. But all the scientists voted for the proposal of the little girl Venice Bernie.(Appendix No. 3) Venice was interested not only in astronomy, but also in mythology. She decided that this name was very suitable for such a dark and cold world, since Pluto in Greek mythology- This is the god of the underworld, the god of hell.

III. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANET

It turns out that Pluto really is made mostly of rock and ice. The ice on the surface of Pluto consists of frozen methane and nitrogen with hydrocarbon impurities.

General information:

1. Macca: 1.3*1022kg. (0.0022 Earth masses)
2. Diameter: 2324 km.
3. Density: 2 g/cm3
4. Temperature: -230oC
5. Length of day: 6.4 Earth days
6. Distance from the Sun (average): between 29.65 (minimum) and 49.28 (maximum) (39.4 AU) AU, in a highly elongated elliptical orbit.
7. Orbital period (year): 247.7 years
8. Orbital speed: 4.7 km/s

Sometimes the temperature on Pluto reaches minus 170 degrees, but for most of the year the temperature there is minus 230 Celsius. A revolution around the Sun takes 248 years on Pluto. One more thing unique property planets - the atmosphere appears there, then suddenly completely disappears.

IV. RIDDLES OF PLUTO

Pluto is the only planet that earthly spacecraft have not yet reached. The mission is too difficult. In a straight line - 6 billion km. And this is decades of travel in an icy vacuum.

Pluto remains to this day mysterious object. When discovered, Pluto had the brightness of a 15th magnitude star. It can only be observed through powerful telescopes, and explored only from space. What mysteries does Planet X hold?

1. The first riddle. Dimensions and weight. (Appendix No. 4)

For a long time it was believed that the size and mass of Pluto were close to those of Earth.

In 1955, it was assumed that Pluto’s radius was 7200 km and its mass was 0.9 Earth masses. In 1965, scientists' calculations stopped at 0.11 Earth masses. In 1978, the mass of Pluto is already only 0.002 the mass of the Earth, that is, 6 times less than the mass of the Moon. So gradually Pluto turned into " dwarf planet»

1. The second riddle. Internal structure of the planet. (Appendix No. 5)

ABOUT internal structure planets can so far be judged only by their average density, which is 1.7 g/cm 3 , which is half that of the Moon and three times that of the Earth. This density indicates that Pluto is 1/3 rock and 2/3 rock. water ice. Scientists only speculate that Pluto must have a large rocky core with a diameter of 1,600 km, surrounded by a layer of water ice 400 km thick. On the surface of the planet there is a crust of ice of various chemical compositions. It is believed that there is a layer between the rock core and its ice shell liquid water- deep ocean. But these are just assumptions.

1. Riddle three. Surface of Pluto. (Appendix No. 6)

Knowledge about the surface of Pluto is also just guesswork. Scientists believe that Pluto differs from other planets in its extreme cold - on its surface it is always very low temperature: from -220 to -240°C. Even nitrogen hardens under such conditions. According to scientists, “if a space traveler ever sets foot on the surface of Pluto, a landscape reminiscent of Antarctica during the polar night, illuminated by moonlight, should open before him.” Here during the day it is 900 times darker than on Earth on a clear afternoon, but 600 times lighter than on a full moon at night, so at noon on Pluto it is much darker than during cloudy, rainy twilight on Earth. The absence of clouds allows you to see thousands of stars in the sky even during the daytime, and the sky itself is always black, since the atmosphere is extremely thin. The entire surface of the planet is covered with ice, which is not at all similar to that on Earth. This is not the water ice we are used to, but frozen nitrogen, which forms large transparent crystals several centimeters across - a kind of icy fairy tale kingdom. In general, the surface of the planet has a yellowish-pinkish tint. Pluto's surface is very bright and reflects 60% of the sunlight falling on it. At the same time, the strongest changes in brightness occur on Pluto. Here you can find areas darker than coal and areas whiter than snow.

1. Riddle four. Atmosphere.The atmosphere around Pluto was discovered as recently as 1988. She is very discharged. The weak gravitational field of the tiny planet is not able to hold the atmosphere, and it constantly evaporates into space, and in place of the flown away molecules come new ones, evaporating from the icy surface. Thus, Pluto's atmosphere is constantly renewed. This does not happen on any planet.

It's "summer" time on Pluto right now. And in 2020 the planet will come glacial period. The atmosphere will disappear for a long time.

1. Riddle five. Satellites. (Appendix No. 7)

In 1978, Pluto's moon Charon was accidentally discovered. The satellite has a bluish color. It is believed to consist of rocks and water ice. In May 2005, scientists discovered two tiny faint dots in images of Pluto that were neither stars nor asteroids. They moved around Pluto, each at a different distance. The joy of the researchers knew no bounds - Pluto has two more satellites! But the most interesting was yet to come. It turned out that Charon makes one revolution, one of the satellites makes exactly two, and the second makes three.

1. Riddle six. Pluto's status.

Pluto was officially recognized as a planet by the International Astronomical Union in May 1930. Then it was believed that it was much larger in size.

At the end of the 20th century, doubts arose whether it makes sense to classify Pluto as a major planet. Three reasons were given:

1. All outer planets are gas giants, but Pluto is not.
2. Pluto is much smaller in mass than any of the planets in the solar system.
3. Pluto's orbit is very elongated and even crosses the orbit of another planet - Neptune.(Appendix No. 8)

In August 2006, it was decided to henceforth call Pluto not a “planet”, but “dwarf planet".

Now, according to the new classification, there will be four planets in the solar system terrestrial group(Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), the same number of giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus) and an unlimited number of dwarf planets.

Scientists' opinions on this matter are divided. Many considered this decision unfair. State residentsNew Mexico, for example, announced that in honor of Clyde Tombaugh (he lived in this state for many years and worked at the university), Pluto will always be considered a planet and since March 13, 2006, every year the state has celebrated “Pluto Planet Day.”

Some Russian scientists also disagree with depriving Pluto of its planetary status.

IV. CONCLUSION

Scientists expected to find very large planet, and found a tiny ball of a mixture of ice and nitrogen. Pluto is the only planet that satellites from Earth have not yet reached. But it will happen soon. This is what the American interplanetary station “New Horizons” looks like.(Appendix No. 9) It started in 2006. The closest approach to Pluto will occur on July 14, 2015. I hope that in 3 years people will solve all the mysteries of Planet X. I really hope that scientists will return Pluto to planetary status.

INTERNET RESOURCES

1. http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2005/02/15/174632
2. http://itw66.ru/blog/space/541.html
3. http://vvv2010.livejournal.com/599322.html
4. http://www.scilog.ru/viewtopic.php?pid=9735

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Let's say the Earth is ending. The sun is about to explode, and an asteroid the size of Texas is approaching the planet. Big cities Zombies are populated, and in the countryside farmers are planting corn intensively because other crops are dying. We urgently need to leave the planet, but here’s the problem - no wormholes have been discovered in the Saturn area, and superluminal engines from a galaxy far, far away they didn't deliver. The nearest star is more than four light years away. Will humanity be able to achieve it, having modern technologies? The answer is not so obvious.

It is unlikely that anyone would argue that global ecological catastrophy, which will threaten the existence of all life on Earth, can only happen in the movies. Mass extinctions have occurred more than once on our planet, during which up to 90% of existing species died. The earth has gone through periods global glaciation, collided with asteroids, went through bursts of volcanic activity.

Of course, even during the most terrible disasters life never completely disappeared. But the same cannot be said about the dominant species at that time, which died out, making way for others. Who is the dominant species now? Exactly.

It is likely that the opportunity to leave native home and going to the stars in search of something new will one day be able to save humanity. However, we should hardly hope that some cosmic benefactors will open the way to the stars for us. It’s worth calculating what our theoretical capabilities are to reach the stars on our own.

Space Ark

First of all, traditional chemical traction engines come to mind. At the moment, four earthly vehicles (all of them were launched back in the 1970s) have managed to develop a third escape velocity, sufficient to leave the solar system forever.

The fastest of them, Voyager 1, has moved away from Earth to a distance of 130 AU in the 37 years since its launch. ( astronomical units, that is, 130 distances from the Earth to the Sun). Each year the device travels approximately 3.5 AU. The distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.36 light years, or 275,725 AU. At this speed, the device will take almost 79 thousand years to reach the neighboring star. To put it mildly, it will be a long wait.

Photo of the Earth (above the arrow) from a distance of 6 billion kilometers, taken by Voyager 1. The spacecraft covered this distance in 13 years.

You can find a way to fly faster, or you can just resign yourself and fly for several thousand years. Then only the distant descendants of those who went on the journey will reach the final point. This is precisely the idea of ​​the so-called generation ship - a space ark, which is a closed ecosystem designed for a long journey.

There are many different stories about generation ships in science fiction. Harry Garrison (“Captured Universe”), Clifford Simak (“Generation Achieved”), Brian Aldiss (“Non-Stop”), and more modern writers such as Bernard Werber (“Star Butterfly”) wrote about them. Quite often, distant descendants of the first inhabitants completely forget about where they flew from and what the purpose of their journey was. Or even begin to believe that all existing world comes down to a ship, as, for example, in Robert Heinlein's novel Stepsons of the Universe. Another interesting plot is shown in the eighth episode of the third season of the classic Star Trek, where the crew of the Enterprise tries to prevent a collision between a generation ship, whose inhabitants have forgotten about their mission, and the inhabited planet to which it was heading.

The advantage of the generation ship is that this option will not require fundamentally new engines. However, it will be necessary to develop a self-sustaining ecosystem that can survive without external supplies for many thousands of years. And don’t forget that people can simply kill each other.

The Biosphere 2 experiment, conducted in the early 1990s under a closed dome, demonstrated a number of dangers that can await people during such travel. This includes the rapid division of the team into several groups hostile to each other, and the uncontrolled proliferation of pests, which caused a lack of oxygen in the air. Even ordinary wind, as it turns out, plays a crucial role - without regular swaying, trees become fragile and break.

Solve many problems long flight technology that puts people into long-term suspended animation will help. Then neither conflicts nor boredom are scary, and a minimal life support system will be required. The main thing is to provide it with energy for a long time. For example, using a nuclear reactor.

Related to the theme of the generation ship is a very interesting paradox called Wait Calculation, described by scientist Andrew Kennedy. According to this paradox, for some time after the departure of the first generation ship on Earth, new, more quick ways movement, which will allow ships starting later to overtake the original settlers. So it is possible that by the time of arrival the destination will already be overpopulated by the distant descendants of the colonizers who went later.

Installations for suspended animation in the film "Alien".

Riding a nuclear bomb

Suppose we are not satisfied that the descendants of our descendants will reach the stars, and we ourselves want to expose our face to the rays of someone else’s sun. In this case, one cannot do without a spaceship capable of accelerating to speeds that will deliver it to a neighboring star in less than one human lifetime. And here the good old nuclear bomb will help.

The idea of ​​such a ship appeared in the late 1950s. The spacecraft was intended for flights within the solar system, but it could also be used for interstellar travel. The principle of its operation is as follows: a powerful armored plate is installed behind the stern. From spacecraft in the direction opposite to the flight, low-power nuclear charges are uniformly ejected, which are detonated at a short (up to 100 meters) distance.

The charges are designed in such a way that most of the explosion products are directed towards the tail of the spacecraft. The reflective plate receives the impulse and transmits it to the ship through the shock absorber system (without it, overloads will be detrimental to the crew). The reflective plate is protected from damage by light flash, gamma radiation streams and high-temperature plasma by a coating of graphite lubricant, which is re-sprayed after each detonation.

The NERVA project is an example of a nuclear rocket engine.

At first glance, such a scheme seems crazy, but it is quite viable. During one of the nuclear tests on Enewetak Atoll, graphite-coated steel spheres were placed 9 meters from the center of the explosion. After testing, they were found undamaged, which proves the effectiveness of graphite protection for the ship. But the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963, outer space and under water" put an end to this idea.

Arthur Clarke wanted to equip spaceship Discovery One from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" is something like a nuclear explosion engine. However, Stanley Kubrick asked him to abandon the idea, fearing that audiences would consider it a parody of his film Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Being Scared and Loved the Atom Bomb.

What speed can be developed using a series nuclear explosions? Most information exists about the Orion explosion project, which was developed in the late 1950s in the USA with the participation of scientists Theodore Taylor and Freeman Dyson. The 400,000-ton ship was planned to accelerate to 3.3% of the speed of light - then the flight to the Alpha Centauri system would last 133 years. However, according to current estimates, in a similar way it is possible to accelerate the ship to 10% of the speed of light. In this case, the flight will last approximately 45 years, which will allow the crew to survive until they arrive at their destination.

Of course, building such a ship is a very expensive undertaking. Dyson estimates that Orion would cost approximately $3 trillion in today's dollars to build. But if we find out that our planet is facing a global catastrophe, then it is likely that a ship with a nuclear pulse engine will be humanity’s last chance for survival.

Gas giant

A further development of the Orion ideas was the project unmanned ship"Daedalus", which was developed in the 1970s by a group of scientists from the British Interplanetary Society. The researchers set out to design an unmanned spacecraft capable of reaching one of the nearest stars during a human lifetime, conducting Scientific research and transmit the received information to Earth. The main condition of the study was the use of either existing or foreseeable technologies in the project.

The target of the flight was chosen to be located at a distance of 5.91 from us light years Barnard's Star - In the 1970s, several planets were thought to orbit this star. We now know that there are no planets in this system. The Daedalus developers set their sights on creating an engine that could deliver the ship to its destination in no more than 50 years. As a result, they came up with the idea of ​​a two-stage apparatus.

The necessary acceleration was provided by a series of low-power nuclear explosions occurring inside a special propulsion system. Microscopic granules of a mixture of deuterium and helium-3, irradiated with a stream of high-energy electrons, were used as fuel. According to the project, up to 250 explosions per second were supposed to occur in the engine. The nozzle was a powerful magnetic field created by the ship's power plants.

According to the plan, the first stage of the ship operated for two years, accelerating the ship to 7% the speed of light. The Daedalus then jettisoned its spent propulsion system, removing most of its mass, and fired its second stage, which allowed it to accelerate to a final speed of 12.2% lightspeed. This would make it possible to reach Barnard's Star 49 years after launch. It would have taken another 6 years to transmit the signal to Earth.

The total mass of the Daedalus was 54 thousand tons, of which 50 thousand were thermonuclear fuel. However, the supposed helium-3 is extremely rare on Earth - but it is abundant in the atmospheres of gas giants. Therefore, the authors of the project intended to extract helium-3 on Jupiter using an automated plant “floating” in its atmosphere; the entire mining process would take approximately 20 years. In the same orbit of Jupiter, it was planned to carry out the final assembly of the ship, which would then launch to another star system.

The most complex element The whole concept of Daedalus was precisely the extraction of helium-3 from the atmosphere of Jupiter. To do this, it was necessary to fly to Jupiter (which is also not so easy and fast), establish a base on one of the satellites, build a plant, store fuel somewhere... And this is not to mention the powerful radiation belts around the gas giant, which additionally would make life more difficult for technology and engineers.

Another problem was that Daedalus did not have the ability to slow down and enter orbit around Barnard's Star. The ship and the probes it launched would simply pass by the star along the flyby path, covering the entire system in a few days.

Now an international group of twenty scientists and engineers, operating under the auspices of the British Interplanetary Society, is working on the Icarus spacecraft project. “Icarus” is a kind of “remake” of Daedalus, taking into account the knowledge and technology accumulated over the past 30 years. One of the main areas of work is the search for other types of fuel that could be produced on Earth.

At the speed of light

Is it possible to accelerate a spaceship to the speed of light? This problem can be solved in several ways. The most promising of them is an antimatter annihilation engine. The principle of its operation is as follows: antimatter is fed into the working chamber, where it comes into contact with ordinary matter, generating a controlled explosion. The ions generated during the explosion are ejected through the engine nozzle, creating thrust. Of all possible engines, annihilation theoretically allows one to achieve the highest speeds. The interaction of matter and antimatter releases a colossal amount of energy, and the speed of the outflow of particles formed during this process is close to that of light.

But here the question of fuel extraction arises. Antimatter itself has long ceased to be science fiction - scientists first managed to synthesize antihydrogen back in 1995. But it is impossible to obtain it in sufficient quantities. Currently, antimatter can only be produced using particle accelerators. Moreover, the amount of substance they create is measured in tiny fractions of grams, and its cost is astronomical. For one billionth of a gram of antimatter, scientists from the European Nuclear Research Center (the same one where they created the Large Hadron Collider) had to spend several hundred million Swiss francs. On the other hand, the cost of production will gradually decrease and in the future may reach much more acceptable values.

In addition, we will have to come up with a way to store antimatter - after all, upon contact with ordinary matter, it is instantly annihilated. One solution is to cool the antimatter to ultra-low temperatures and use magnetic traps to prevent it from coming into contact with the walls of the tank. On this moment The record storage time for antimatter is 1000 seconds. Not years, of course, but taking into account the fact that the first time antimatter was contained for only 172 milliseconds, there is progress.

And even faster

Numerous science fiction films have taught us that it is possible to get to other star systems much faster than in a few years. It is enough to turn on the warp engine or hyperspace drive, sit back comfortably in your chair - and within a few minutes you will find yourself on the other side of the galaxy. The theory of relativity prohibits travel at speeds exceeding the speed of light, but at the same time leaves loopholes to circumvent these restrictions. If we could tear apart or stretch space-time, we could travel faster than light without breaking any laws.

A gap in space is better known as a wormhole or wormhole. Physically, it is a tunnel connecting two remote regions of space-time. Why not use such a tunnel to travel into deep space? The fact is that the creation of such a wormhole requires the presence of two singularities at different points in the universe (this is what is beyond the event horizon of black holes - in fact, gravity in its purest form), which can tear apart space-time, creating a tunnel that allows travelers to " shortcut through hyperspace.

In addition, to maintain such a tunnel in a stable state, it is necessary that it be filled with exotic matter with negative energy, - but the existence of such matter has not yet been proven. In any case, create wormhole only a super-civilization can be achieved, which will be many thousands of years ahead of the current one in development and whose technologies, from our point of view, will be similar to magic.

The second, more affordable option is to “stretch” the space. In 1994, Mexican theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed that it was possible to change its geometry by creating a wave that compresses the space in front of the ship and expands it behind. Thus, the starship will find itself in a “bubble” of curved space, which itself will move faster than light, thanks to which the ship will not violate fundamental physical principles. According to Alcubierre himself, .

True, the scientist himself considered that it would be impossible to implement such a technology in practice, since this would require a colossal amount of mass-energy. The first calculations gave values ​​exceeding the mass of the entire existing universe, subsequent refinements reduced it to “only” Jovian.

But in 2011, Harold White, who heads research group Eagleworks at NASA carried out calculations that showed that if you change some parameters, then creating an Alcubierre bubble may require much less energy than previously thought, and it will no longer be necessary to recycle the entire planet. Now White's group is working on the possibility of an "Alcubierre bubble" in practice.

If the experiments yield results, this will be the first small step towards creating an engine that allows travel 10 times greater. faster speed Sveta. Of course, a spacecraft using the Alcubierre bubble will travel many tens, or even hundreds of years later. But the very prospect that this is actually possible is already breathtaking.

Flight of the Valkyrie

Almost all proposed starship projects have one significant drawback: they weigh tens of thousands of tons, and their creation requires huge amount launches and assembly operations in orbit, which increases the cost of construction by an order of magnitude. But if humanity still learns to receive a large number of antimatter, he will have an alternative to these bulky structures.

In the 1990s, writer Charles Pelegrino and physicist Jim Powell proposed a starship design known as Valkyrie. It can be described as something like a space tractor. The ship is a combination of two annihilation engines connected to each other by a super-strong cable 20 kilometers long. In the center of the bundle there are several compartments for the crew. The ship uses the first engine to reach near light speed, and the second to reduce it when entering orbit around the star. Thanks to the use of a cable instead of a rigid structure, the mass of the ship is only 2,100 tons (for comparison, the ISS weighs 400 tons), of which 2,000 tons are engines. Theoretically, such a ship can accelerate to a speed of 92% of the speed of light.

A modified version of this ship, called the Venture Star, is shown in the film Avatar (2011), one of the scientific consultants of which was Charles Pelegrino. Venture Star sets off on a journey, propelled by lasers and a 16-kilometer solar sail, before stopping at Alpha Centauri using an antimatter engine. On the way back the sequence changes. The ship is capable of accelerating to 70% the speed of light and reaching Alpha Centauri in less than 7 years.

No fuel

Both existing and promising rocket engines have one problem - fuel always makes up the majority of their mass at the start. However, there are starship projects that will not need to take fuel with them at all.

In 1960, physicist Robert Bussard proposed the concept of an engine that would use hydrogen found in interstellar space as fuel for a fusion engine. Unfortunately, despite the attractiveness of the idea (hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe), it has a number of theoretical problems, ranging from the method of collecting hydrogen to the calculation maximum speed, which is unlikely to exceed 12% light. This means that it will take at least half a century to fly to the Alpha Centauri system.

Another interesting concept is the use of a solar sail. If a huge, super-powerful laser was built in Earth orbit or on the Moon, its energy could be used to accelerate a starship equipped with a giant solar sail to fairly high speeds. True, according to engineers’ calculations, in order to give a manned ship weighing 78,500 tons half the speed of light, a solar sail with a diameter of 1000 kilometers will be required.

Another obvious problem with a starship with a solar sail is that it needs to be slowed down somehow. One of its solutions is to release a second, smaller sail behind the starship when approaching the target. The main one will disconnect from the ship and continue its independent journey.

***

Interstellar travel is a very complex and expensive undertaking. Creating a ship capable of covering space distance in a relatively short period of time is one of the most ambitious tasks facing humanity in the future. Of course, this will require the efforts of several states, if not the entire planet. Now this seems like a utopia - governments have too many things to worry about and too many ways to spend money. A flight to Mars is millions of times simpler than a flight to Alpha Centauri - and yet, it is unlikely that anyone will dare to name the year when it will take place.

Work in this direction can be revived either by a global danger threatening the entire planet, or by the creation of a single planetary civilization that can overcome internal squabbles and wants to leave its cradle. The time for this has not yet come - but this does not mean that it will never come.

The new planet received its name on May 1, 1930. From a variety of options, astronomers at the Lowell Observatory chose the name proposed by an 11-year-old English girl from Oxford for the god of the underworld, which is as dark as the farthest planet. In Greek and Roman mythologies, Pluto is considered the brother of Zeus-Jupiter and Poseidon-Neptune, the son of Kronos-Saturn, so next to the neighboring planets this name was completely in “its circle” (and also echoes the initials of Percival Lowell). It subsequently turned out that back in 1919, the French astronomer Reynaud proposed calling the ninth planet, not yet discovered at that time, Pluto, but by 1930 his proposal was forgotten. Despite the big name, the newcomer looked like an alien body in the company of giant planets. The size of Pluto was clearly smaller than that of the Earth, and tens of times smaller than that of four large gas-ice planets, located, like Pluto, in the outer part of the solar system. Now the diameter of Pluto is determined quite accurately, it is equal to 2,390 km, which is 2/3 of the diameter of the Moon. It is not only the farthest, but also the smallest of the planets. Even among the satellites of other planets, Pluto was only in eighth place after Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, the Moon, Europa and Triton. True, it is 2.5 times larger than Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. The surface area of ​​Pluto is 17.9 million km 2, which is comparable to the territory of Russia. Pluto’s orbit also turned out to be unusual - it is very elongated, so the distance from Pluto to the Sun changes almost twice - from 30 to 50 astronomical units (1 AU is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun, approximately 150 million km), then like the other eight planets, the orbits are almost circular. In addition, Pluto's orbit is located at a significant angle (17°) to the plane of the orbits of the other planets. It turns out that the ninth planet by no means fits into the rather harmonious picture of the rest of the solar system, so they even propose to consider Pluto not a planet, but an asteroid. A day on Pluto is 6.4 times longer than on Earth, and the force of gravity is 15 times less than on Earth. The mass of this tiny planet is 480 times less than the mass of the Earth.

Landscapes of nitrogen ice.

H Pluto differs from other planets in that it is extremely cold - its surface has a constantly extremely low temperature: from –220 to –240°C. Even nitrogen hardens under such conditions. If a space traveler ever sets foot on the surface of Pluto, he should be greeted with a landscape reminiscent of Antarctica during the polar night, illuminated by moonlight. However, on Pluto such darkness corresponds to daytime. The Sun appears in the sky as a large star with a barely visible disk, 20 million times brighter than Sirius. Here during the day it is 900 times darker than on Earth at clear noon, yet 600 times lighter than on a full moon at night, so at noon on Pluto it is much darker than during cloudy, rainy twilight on Earth. The absence of clouds allows you to see thousands of stars in the sky even during the daytime, and the sky itself is always black, since the atmosphere is extremely thin. The entire surface of the planet is covered with ice, which is not at all similar to that on Earth. This is not the water ice we are used to, but frozen nitrogen, which forms large transparent crystals several centimeters across - a kind of icy fairy-tale kingdom. Inside these crystals, a small amount of methane is frozen in the form of a kind of “solid solution” (usually it is called natural gas - this is the gas that, together with propane and butane, burns in our kitchen). In some areas of Pluto, water ice and even some carbon monoxide ice come to the surface ( carbon monoxide). In general, the surface of the planet has a yellowish-pinkish tint, which is given to it by particles of complex organic compounds settling from the atmosphere, formed from carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen atoms under the influence of sunlight.

Pluto's surface is very bright and reflects 60% of the sunlight falling on it, so early estimates of its diameter were overestimated. At the same time, the strongest changes in brightness occur on Pluto. Here you can find areas darker than coal and areas whiter than snow. The internal structure of the planet can so far be judged only by its average density, which is 1.7 g/cm 3, which is half that of the Moon and three times less than that of the Earth. This density indicates that Pluto is 1/3 rock and 2/3 water ice. If the material is divided into shells (which is most likely), then Pluto should have a large rocky core with a diameter of 1,600 km, surrounded by a layer of water ice 400 km thick. On the surface of the planet there is a crust of ice of various chemical compositions, the main role in which is allocated to nitrogen ice. It is possible that between the rocky core and its icy shell there is a layer of liquid water - a deep ocean, similar to those most likely found on the three large satellites of Jupiter - Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Question: arrange the sentences in such a way as to form a text. And determine what style of speech it belongs to 1. here, on the most distant planet of the solar system, he, along with frozen nitrogen and others chemical compounds forms a kingdom of ice and cold. 2. the fact is that this planet differs from other planets in the solar system in that its surface has an extremely low temperature from -220 to -240 degrees 3. if a space traveler ever steps on the surface of Pluto, then a landscape should open before him , reminiscent of Antarctica during the polar night. 4. this is the same gas that, together with propane and butane, burns in our kitchen 5. inside these crystals a small amount of methane is frozen in the form of a kind of solid solution 6. under such conditions, the atmospheric gas cools and condenses on the surface in the form of frost: it even hardens nitrogen, which forms large transparent crystals several centimeters across

arrange the sentences in such a way as to form a text. and determine which style of speech it belongs to 1. here, on the most distant planet of the solar system, it, together with frozen nitrogen and other chemical compounds, forms the kingdom of ice and cold. 2. the fact is that this planet differs from other planets in the solar system in that its surface has an extremely low temperature from -220 to -240 degrees 3. if a space traveler ever steps on the surface of Pluto, then a landscape should open before him , reminiscent of Antarctica during the polar night. 4. this is the same gas that, together with propane and butane, burns in our kitchen 5. inside these crystals a small amount of methane is frozen in the form of a kind of solid solution 6. under such conditions, the atmospheric gas cools and condenses on the surface in the form of frost: it even hardens nitrogen, which forms large transparent crystals several centimeters across

Answers:

3, 2, 6, 5, 4 1, scientific

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In 1992, 86-year-old astronomy professor Clyde Tombaugh read with undisguised excitement a letter he received from National Administration USA Aeronautics and Space. This piece of paper turned out to be more significant than any scientific awards. After all, the question asked in it could not be addressed to any other person in the world. NASA asked permission to visit Pluto, the planet Tombaugh discovered. This happened back in 1930, when he was a 24-year-old laboratory assistant at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, on the Arizona mountain plateau. Reading the letter, the old astronomer clearly felt that we're talking about, not just about one of the planets, but specifically about his planet, which became known to people thanks to his works. The letter was, of course, only a tribute to what he had done scientific discovery. Nevertheless, supporting the game, Tombaugh agreed, and NASA began designing an automatic station flight to the most distant planet in the solar system.

Laboratory assistant Tombo's discovery

The ninth planet of the solar system was searched for a quarter of a century and was discovered only in 1930. A certain pattern has emerged: one planet is discovered every century: Uranus was discovered in the 18th century, Neptune in the 19th century, and Pluto in the 20th century. This time fate was favorable to young man without an astronomical education, who managed to work at the observatory for only a few months. True, these were months of hard work - every night he photographed the sky through a telescope, section by section, repeating the shooting at intervals of several days. During the day, he carefully looked through hundreds of stars on the resulting photographic plates, trying to find a new planet among them. This monstrously monotonous task came to a successful conclusion on the afternoon of February 18, 1930, when 24-year-old laboratory assistant Clyde Tombaugh walked into the office of Lowell Observatory director Vesto Slipher and said, “I think I’ve found your Planet X.” Many years later, Tombaugh, who became a world-famous astronomer and university professor, recalled that at the same time he was terribly worried and sweat was literally dripping from his palms.

Slifer and other experienced astronomers immediately began checking the discovery, made from photographs of the night sky. They rushed to the blink comparator that Tombaugh had been using for the past few months and began comparing images he had taken on different days. This device made it possible to compare two photographs, alternately observing one or the other. By quickly moving the mirror shutter with a lever, the astronomers seemed to combine two frames, looking for an image of the planet, jumping due to its movement, against the backdrop of fixed stars. That day, the slamming of the shutter and the clicking of the lever did not subside under the dome of the observatory until late at night. The check took a long time, the new planet was discovered on several more photographic plates, some of which were obtained back in 1915! Finally, on March 13, the official announcement of its opening was made. The date was deliberately chosen - the birthday of Percival Lowell, who founded this observatory on a high plateau in Arizona near the city of Flagstaff. In 1905, Lowell began a systematic search for “Planet X,” as he called an unknown planet further away than Neptune. He himself did not live to see it discovered, but his initials PL became forever associated with it, since the combination of these letters formed the astronomical sign for Pluto. For his discovery, Clyde Tombaugh was awarded a medal and a prize of 25 pounds sterling (in purchasing power today, approximately $1,500) by the Royal Astronomical Society of London in 1931. He also received a scholarship from the State of Kansas to attend a local university. Shortly before the discovery of the new planet, Tombaugh graduated from a rural school in Kansas, and then went to Arizona to work at an observatory. Apparently, it’s not for nothing that the name Kansas means “Big Sky” in the local dialect.

Unusual orbit

The new planet received its name on May 1, 1930. From a variety of options, astronomers at the Lowell Observatory chose the name proposed by an 11-year-old English girl from Oxford for the god of the underworld, which is as dark as the farthest planet. In Greek and Roman mythologies, Pluto is considered the brother of Zeus-Jupiter and Poseidon-Neptune, the son of Kronos-Saturn, so next to the neighboring planets this name was completely in “its circle” (and also echoes the initials of Percival Lowell). It subsequently turned out that back in 1919, the French astronomer Reynaud proposed calling the ninth planet, not yet discovered at that time, Pluto, but by 1930 his proposal was forgotten. Despite the big name, the newcomer looked like an alien body in the company of giant planets. The size of Pluto was clearly smaller than that of the Earth, and tens of times smaller than that of four large gas-ice planets, located, like Pluto, in the outer part of the solar system. Now the diameter of Pluto is determined quite accurately, it is equal to 2,390 km, which is 2/3 of the diameter of the Moon. It is not only the farthest, but also the smallest of the planets. Even among the satellites of other planets, Pluto was only in eighth place after Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, the Moon, Europa and Triton. True, it is 2.5 times larger than Ceres itself large object from the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. The surface area of ​​Pluto is 17.9 million km 2, which is comparable to the territory of Russia. Pluto’s orbit also turned out to be unusual - it is very elongated, so the distance from Pluto to the Sun changes almost twice - from 30 to 50 astronomical units (1 AU is equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun, approximately 150 million km), then like the other eight planets, the orbits are almost circular. In addition, Pluto's orbit is located at a significant angle (17°) to the plane of the orbits of the other planets. It turns out that the ninth planet by no means fits into the rather harmonious picture of the rest of the solar system, so they even propose to consider Pluto not a planet, but an asteroid. A day on Pluto is 6.4 times longer than on Earth, and the force of gravity is 15 times less than on Earth. The mass of this tiny planet is 480 times less than the mass of the Earth.

Landscapes of nitrogen ice

What makes Pluto different from other planets is its extreme cold: its surface has a constantly extremely low temperature: from 220 to 240°C. Even nitrogen hardens under such conditions. If a space traveler ever sets foot on the surface of Pluto, he should be greeted with a landscape reminiscent of Antarctica during the polar night, illuminated by moonlight. However, on Pluto such darkness corresponds to daytime. The sun looks like this in the sky big star with a barely noticeable disk, 20 million times brighter than Sirius. Here during the day it is 900 times darker than on Earth at clear noon, yet 600 times lighter than on a full moon at night, so at noon on Pluto it is much darker than during cloudy, rainy twilight on Earth. The absence of clouds allows you to see thousands of stars in the sky even during the daytime, and the sky itself is always black, since the atmosphere is extremely thin. The entire surface of the planet is covered with ice, which is not at all similar to that on Earth. This is not the water ice we are used to, but frozen nitrogen, which forms large transparent crystals several centimeters in diameter - a kind of icy fairy-tale kingdom. Inside these crystals, a small amount of methane is frozen in the form of a kind of “solid solution” (usually called natural gas - this is the gas that, along with propane and butane, burns in our kitchen). In some areas of Pluto, water ice and even some carbon monoxide ice come to the surface. In general, the surface of the planet has a yellowish-pinkish tint, which is given to it by particles of complex particles settling from the atmosphere. organic compounds, formed from carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen atoms under the influence of sunlight.

Pluto's surface is very bright and reflects 60% of the sunlight falling on it, so early estimates of its diameter were overestimated. At the same time, the strongest changes in brightness occur on Pluto. Here you can find areas darker than coal and areas whiter than snow. The internal structure of the planet can so far be judged only by its average density, which is 1.7 g/cm 3, which is half that of the Moon and three times less than that of the Earth. This density indicates that Pluto is 1/3 rock and 2/3 water ice. If the material is divided into shells (which is most likely), then Pluto should have a large rocky core with a diameter of 1,600 km, surrounded by a layer of water ice 400 km thick. On the surface of the planet there is a crust of ice of various chemical compositions, the main role in which is assigned to nitrogen ice. It is possible that between the rocky core and its icy shell there is a layer of liquid water - a deep ocean, similar to those most likely found on the three large moons of Jupiter - Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Gas veil of the planet

The atmosphere around Pluto was discovered relatively recently - in 1988, when the planet, in the process of its movement, covered one of the distant stars and obscured the light coming from it. Atmosphere pressure on Pluto an insignificant 0.3 pascals, which is three hundred thousand times less than on Earth. However, even in such a thin atmosphere, winds can blow, haze can occur, and chemical reactions. It is possible that there is also an ionosphere - a layer of electrically charged particles in the upper part of the atmosphere. It is assumed that Pluto's gas shell consists of nitrogen mixed with methane and carbon monoxide, since ices of these substances were discovered on the surface of the planet through spectroscopic observations. The weak gravitational field of the tiny planet is not able to retain the atmosphere, and it constantly evaporates into space, and in place of the flown away molecules come new ones, evaporating from the icy surface. Thus, Pluto's atmosphere resembles that of a comet, which "runs away" from the comet's nucleus. This does not happen on any planet, at least on such a significant scale as on Pluto, where the atmosphere is, in fact, constantly renewed.

Pluto is very cold, with an average temperature of 230°C. On the night side of the planet it is significantly colder than on the day side, so the atmospheric gas there cools and condenses on the surface in the form of frost. The biggest changes in Pluto's atmosphere occur with the changing seasons. An increase in the temperature of nitrogen ice on the surface of the planet by just two degrees leads to a doubling of the mass of the atmosphere. Pluto is currently in the “summer” period: the planet passed the closest point of its orbit to the Sun in 1989 and is still in the “warm” part of its orbit. True, due to its remoteness and high reflectivity, Pluto receives 1,500 times less solar heat per unit surface than the Earth. When Pluto moves further along its highly elongated orbit, the heating by the Sun will decrease almost threefold, the temperature will drop significantly and global winter, a seasonal ice age, will begin. The gases will condense and fall onto Pluto's surface in the form of ice crystals. The atmosphere will disappear for a long time. This does not happen on any other planet. In 2015, during the flyby of the New Horizons robotic station, the planet will still be warm by Pluto standards. IN Southern Hemisphere the polar day will come, and half Northern Hemisphere will plunge into the darkness of the polar night. Therefore, we can expect that the atmosphere will not freeze out yet and the spacecraft will have something to study not only on the surface of Pluto, but also in its gaseous envelope.

Dear polar nights

Seasonal changes on Pluto occur over very long periods of time. One revolution around the Sun lasts 248 Earth years; this is a pluton year. The longest day on this planet is one revolution around the axis occurs in 6.4 Earth days. Therefore, there are approximately 14,160 plutonic days in a plutonic year. Only a third of a year has passed since the discovery of the planet according to its calendar, but almost 76 years have elapsed according to the earthly calendar. Each season lasts 62 Earth years on Pluto. Unlike all the planets except Uranus, Pluto's rotation axis is deviated from a position perpendicular to the orbital plane by 60°, so its movement is similar to a bun rolling from side to side, while all planets move like tops, rotating around an axis almost perpendicular planes of movement. Such a strong tilt of Pluto leads to the fact that the polar night and polar day there are not limited, as on Earth, only to areas near the poles, but extend almost half of each hemisphere - from the pole to the 30th degree of the corresponding latitude. On Earth, this would lead to a shift of the Arctic Circle from the northern edges of Europe and Asia to Mexico, Florida, the Canary Islands and Egypt, and the polar night would cover all of Europe, Russia, Japan, the USA and Canada.

Charon's Hints

In the first 48 years after the discovery of Pluto, very little was learned about it. Even its size and mass were determined very uncertainly; data on the diameter differed by a factor of five. The situation changed dramatically in 1978, when it was discovered that Pluto had a satellite. It was discovered by astronomer James Christie while making observations at the US Naval Observatory station located in Flagstaff, the same city where Pluto itself was discovered in 1930. For the “companion” of the ninth planet, Christie proposed the name Charon - this is the name in Greek mythology for the carrier who delivers the souls of the dead through the river flowing around the underground kingdom of Pluto. With the discovery of the satellite, the data necessary to accurately calculate Pluto's mass became available.

The diameter of the satellite is 1,205 km, and its density of 1.7 g/cm3 is exactly the same as that of Pluto. If Charon and Pluto are placed next to each other, side by side, their joint diameter will be almost identical to the diameter of the Moon. Charon has no atmosphere. The satellite has a bluish color, which differs sharply from the yellowish Pluto. Features of the spectrum of reflected light lead to the conclusion that Charon is covered with water ice, and not methane-nitrogen ice, like Pluto. In general, Charon, based on its density, should consist of 1/3 rock and 2/3 water ice. These components can be distributed in two ways: in the form of quite homogeneous mixture(a ball of rock-ice “porridge” covered with a thin ice crust) or in the form of separate shells (a rock core with a diameter of 800 km, surrounded by a layer of ice 200 km thick). Charon's mass is 1/5 the mass of Pluto, which is unique - no planet has a satellite with such a large relative mass. Pluto and Charon are even called a double planet, the masses of the components of which are comparable in size.

Full synchronization

The distance from Charon to the planet is small - 19,600 km, so an imaginary space traveler would see from the surface of Pluto a giant satellite occupying 7 times more space than the Moon in the earth's sky. And from Charon it will seem that Pluto, hanging over the horizon, is about to collapse onto its satellite after all, the diameter of Pluto in the sky above Charon is 14 times larger than the Moon in our sky. However, you can admire such pictures only from one hemisphere - both on Pluto and on its satellite. The fact is that these two celestial objects are in complete gravitational resonance Charon is always located in the equatorial plane of Pluto and makes one revolution around the planet in 6.4 Earth days, in exactly the same time as Pluto around its axis. Therefore, Charon is visible only from one hemisphere of Pluto, and it itself is always turned towards the planet with one hemisphere and is constantly located at the same point in the sky, without moving anywhere. Our Moon also always faces the Earth with only one side, but unlike Charon, it moves across the sky: it appears from behind the horizon and then sets behind it. From a point on the equator of Pluto, located strictly below Charon, the satellite is visible at the zenith and gradually descends towards the horizon, as the observer moves into the hemisphere, deprived of the opportunity to see Charon, and from the poles it is always visible at the very horizon. During the Pluto day, the picture in the sky changes little - it is constantly black, in contrast to the surface of the planet, which is a little lighter during the day due to the meager sunlight. The most variable feature in Pluto's sky is Charon, which is illuminated with different sides, taking on the appearance of full moon, then the crescent. This variability is reminiscent of the phases of our Moon, with the only difference being that the “moon” above Pluto never leaves its place. All of the above also applies to the view of Pluto from the surface of Charon: the planet constantly looms at the same point in the sky above Charon and faces it with only one hemisphere. The meridian passing through the center of this hemisphere is taken to be the “Greenwich pluto” - the prime meridian from which longitude is measured. From the opposite hemisphere of Pluto, its satellite is never visible, just as it is impossible to see Pluto itself from the hemisphere farthest from it, Charon.

Lilliputian satellites

A major astronomical discovery related to Pluto occurred at the end of 2005, when the New Horizons automatic station was already at the spaceport awaiting launch to this planet. On October 31, the International Astronomical Union posted on the Internet a message about the discovery made by a group of American astronomers who discovered two new satellites near Pluto. In anticipation of the flight to Pluto, participants in the upcoming research carefully analyzed all the images of this planet taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit around the Earth. Both Pluto itself and its large satellite Charon look like small dots on them, however, scientists were able to recognize in one of the images taken back in May 2005, two very tiny dim dots that were neither stars nor any of the asteroids of the trans-Neptunian belt. Imagine the joy of the researchers when they discovered another photograph taken three days after the first, where these points were already in a different location. The nature of their movement showed that they were moving around Pluto, each at a different distance. During the subsequent revision of older photographs, another one was found, taken in 2002, which confirmed the find. True, in the old image these satellites are visible as very faint spots. To make sure that the discovered objects are indeed moons of Pluto, a series of observations specifically dedicated to these tiny moons is scheduled to take place in February 2006 using the Hubble Telescope. According to current data, they have a diameter of 110 to 160 km and are located at distances of 50 and 65 thousand km from the planet - much further than Charon. As a result of this discovery, Pluto once again showed its uniqueness, becoming the only trans-Neptunian object to have more than one satellite. It is possible that the matter will not end with this trinity, since the New Horizons station program provides for the search for even smaller satellites of Pluto with a diameter of up to 1 km.

On the edge of the Ecumene

Pluto is located 40 times further from Earth than the Sun. This is the only planet to which no space station has yet been sent. Preparations for the flight to Pluto began back in 1989, but one after another, five programs were canceled by NASA at the very early stages, when they did not even have time to develop a sketch of the spacecraft. Finally, in 2001, they finally settled on the next project and brought it to fruition. The automatic station New Horizons ("New Horizons") should go to Pluto in mid-January 2006. Its name well reflects the mission's objectives: to explore the least explored region on the outskirts of the solar system, where the outermost planet is located. It is planned to study three satellites of Pluto - the large Charon and a couple of small, just discovered and as yet unnamed, as well as several very small objects located even further than Pluto, in the outer asteroid belt (Kuiper belt). The station has the form of a flat triangular box measuring 3x3x2 m, to one side of which a dish antenna with a diameter of 2.1 meters is attached. Sending a radio signal to Earth from a distance of 5 billion km will be carried out by a transmitter with a power of 200 watts, that is, only 100 times more than that of a cell phone. Radio waves sent at the speed of light will reach the Earth only in four and a half hours. To imagine how far away Pluto is, remember that light from the Sun reaches our planet in just 8 minutes. Radio signals coming from the New Horizons station to Earth will be very weak, and to receive them they will use three highly sensitive parabolic antennas - huge “dishes” with a diameter of 70 meters each, located in the USA (California), Spain and Australia. Long-distance space communication points are located evenly across the Earth's surface, and this will ensure round-the-clock radio communication with the station.

The launch of the New Horizons automatic station from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida is planned for January-February 2006. The Atlas-V launch vehicle was delivered there back in August 2005 from a plant in Denver by an AN-124-100 Ruslan cargo aircraft of Volga Dnepr Airlines, the world leader in the transportation of large cargo. When launched in mid-January, the flight trajectory will go in such a way that in about a year, in February 2007, the station will approach the giant planet Jupiter and, under the influence of it, gravitational field will receive an increase in flight speed. This will help her reach Pluto in 2015. If the launch is postponed until the end of January, then the arrival to Pluto will be delayed by 12 years, since the flyby of Jupiter will be at greater distance and the gravity maneuver will be weaker. At the most unfavorable launch time - in the first half of February - the flight will take place without the help of Jupiter, so the station will be able to get to Pluto only by 2019, or even later. It will be pointless to start after February 15 mutual arrangement The Earth and Pluto will change so much that the flight will be impossible.

There are seven scientific instruments on board New Horizons, with the help of which we will find out what gases Pluto’s atmosphere consists of and what kind of processes take place in it, what geological structures are present on Pluto and Charon, and what chemical composition material of the surface of the planet and its satellite, how the stream of charged particles ejected by the Sun (solar wind) interacts with the atmosphere of Pluto and at what speed atmospheric gases escape into space. The devices are designed in such a way that the data they receive is partially duplicated, providing insurance in case of failure of any of them. During the interplanetary flight, it is planned to check all instruments once a year, and then put them back into “sleep” mode. Solar panels, usually used on space stations, are useless in this flight, since in the region of Pluto the energy coming from the Sun will be clearly insufficient for the operation of the station. The devices will receive electricity from a thermoelectric generator running on the radioactive isotope of plutonium. This chemical element was discovered in the USA in 1940 and named after the planet Pluto, just as its predecessors on the periodic table, uranium and neptunium, were previously named after the planets.

Three months after flying near Pluto and Charon, the station will begin to transmit the received information recorded in its electronic memory. Due to the great distance to Earth, radio transmission will be carried out slowly so that weak signals can be distinguished from the background of cosmic and terrestrial noise and deciphered. The transfer process will take as long as nine months. At this time, the station will continue to fly, moving further and further from the Sun. Its new goal will be to take an up-close look at some of the newly discovered small planets in the outer asteroid belt, called the Kuiper Belt, which lies beyond the orbit of Pluto. This belt consists of many small cosmic bodies icy asteroids, believed to be remnants oldest material, preserved from the formation of the planets of the solar system. A trip through the Kuiper Belt could take another three to six years. The data received from the station will be processed in two operational scientific centers Tombaugh in Boulder, Colorado, and Christie, in Laurel, Maryland, named after the discoverers of Pluto and its moon Charon. Naming certificates were presented to Clyde Tombaugh's widow and astronomer James Christie. The cost of this project, including the launch vehicle and deep space communications services, is approximately $650 million, which equates to 20 cents per person in the United States annually for the station's 10-year mission.

Georgy Burba, Candidate of Geographical Sciences