What Would It Be Like To Stand On Pluto?

deep in the outer reaches of the solar system past all of the giant gas planets and their many moons you will find a region known as the Kuiper belt and within this region lurks a strange little world known as Pluto Pluto was once considered the ninth and most distant planets in our solar system but back in 2006 this mysterious celestial object was reclassified as a dwarf planet because of its small size and weak gravitational field it shares the Kuiper belt region an area beyond Neptune that is believed to contain trillions of objects with many other small worlds or Pluto as they are also known since Pluto is so far away from Earth around three billion miles at its closest point little was known about it until NASA's new Horizons probe arrived there in 2015 this incredible probe allowed for a much broader understanding of the world at the edge of the solar system capturing incredible photos as it completed its flyby so if one day in the future we have developed the technology that will allow human beings to travel and explore this distant dwarf planet what would it be like to stand on Pluto the first thing you might notice after landing on Pluto is the dwarf planets weak gravity which is only naught point naught seven times that of Earth's because Pluto is so far away from the Sun it is one of the coldest places in the solar system at roughly minus 235 degrees Celsius the atmosphere on Pluto fluctuates depending on how close it is to the Sun at its closest point its surface ice begins to sublimate changing directly from solid to a gas but this gas consisting mainly of nitrogen and methane is only temporary and if you were standing on Pluto during the right season you may experience the dwarf planet's atmosphere freezing and falling as snow to the surface Pluto is however no place for human beings it's frigid temperature lack of oxygen and weak gravitational field mean that you and the rest of your crew would require advanced equipment and a special spacesuit to survive on this relentless earth planet but looking across Pluto might make it all worthwhile as you would see exotic ice mountains and sharp ridges towering in the distance some higher than 10,000 feet you would see smooth regions and glacial flow use both into and out of ancient basins depending on where you were standing you might notice large differences in surface brightness and color from charcoal black glistening white and even a deep crimson red these color variations are believed to be a result of solar ultraviolet rays falling on the nitrogen and methane gases present in Pluto's atmosphere creating the tholians that then rest on the surface ice you wouldn't see many craters as Pluto has a fairly new surface that is believed to be less than ten million years old if you looked up into the sky you might see a subtle blue color with stars flickering away in the distant space the Sun would also be visible in the sky but instead it would look like a very bright star because of how far away it is if you and your exploring crew were on the right side of Pluto you might see Charon in all its glory Pluto's largest moon that is only twelve thousand miles away other smaller moons may also be seen like Styx Nix Kerberos and Hydra as they continue on their orbit around the dwarf planets if you had landed in the region known as Tombaugh regio or the heart then there could be a possibility that you might not be alone underneath the certain areas of the heart some evidence suggests that Pluto may be hiding a subsurface slushy ice ocean and if this is the case and there is enough energy then according to scientists there could be a possibility of life existing there even if there isn't a subsurface ocean filled with alien creatures Pluto is still an extremely interesting mysterious place that is highly popular amongst the people of Earth making it to the undisputed king of the Kuiper belt I really hope you enjoyed this video and if you did then why not check out some of my other what would it be like to stand on videos thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: V101 SPACE

Views: 3,522,134

Keywords: Pluto, astronomy, what would it feel like, standing, cosmos, solar system, pluto facts, charon, earth like, pluto from earth, ninth planet, whi is pluto not a planet, sun, earth, space, vendor 101, standing on other planets, kuiper belt, outer space, about pluto, ice mooon, moon, documentry, science

Id: AHvDcbUi9rI

Length: 5min 42sec (342 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2017