Scientists have noticed something strange about Pluto and its big moon, Charon, and it's making them rethink a lot! Unlike most moons, Charon is almost half the size of Pluto, so they actually orbit around a point in space between them, almost like they're twin planets. On top of that, Pluto has a reddish "heart" and Charon has a dark "cap" at its pole, both of which are unusual and still a bit mysterious. The red color on Pluto comes from chemicals called tholins that are formed by sunlight hitting gases, but why Charon has that dark spot is still puzzling scientists. Plus, Pluto and Charon always show the same face to each other, so one side of Pluto never gets to see its moon! This unique system is giving researchers tons of clues about how small planets and moons form and change over time. #brightside Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Listen to Bright Side on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960 Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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00:00Pluto used to be considered a major planet, but later was reclassified into something
00:05called a dwarf planet.
00:07Something too big to be an asteroid, but too small to be taken seriously.
00:11How rude.
00:13But recently, scientists began to discuss the mystery surrounding one of Pluto's moons.
00:17It turns out, it might be even cooler than all of us.
00:20It might be a double-planet system.
00:26Pluto is residing in the distant Kuiper belt.
00:28It's a vast area in our solar system, like a big rocky suburb beyond the orbit of Neptune.
00:34It's filled with small icy objects, similar to Pluto, called Kuiper objects.
00:40They're leftovers from the early days of our solar system, and give us clues about how
00:44it was formed.
00:45It's where many comets come from.
00:47You already know that it's small, but it's remarkable just how small it is.
00:52Pluto has a width of about 1,400 miles.
00:55It's about half the size of the United States, and smaller than our moon.
01:00Pluto's atmosphere is very thin, and composed of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.
01:06Stinky.
01:07It's also very cold there, with average temperatures being around minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:13Its orbit around the Sun looks like an oval, and one year on Pluto takes around 250 Earth
01:19years.
01:20Pluto also shows a strange and unusual retrograde rotation because it's tilted on its axis,
01:26which means that it spins on its side.
01:32If you were standing on Pluto, you'd see a lot of high icy mountains, valleys, plains,
01:37and craters.
01:38The Sun would be very dim and far away, and it would always look like twilight.
01:43It's a colorful planet, surprisingly.
01:45You would see a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds.
01:50And the most adorable fact about Pluto is its famous heart, called Tombaugh Regio.
01:56Pluto was discovered super late in the 1930s, later than the rest of the planets.
02:01Initially, we thought that it's the 9th planet in our Solar System.
02:05However, the more we explored the Kuiper Belt, the more we realized that it's full of these
02:10medium-sized objects.
02:12We found four more little planets just like Pluto – Eris, Ceres, Makemake, and Haumea.
02:18They all shared the same characteristics.
02:20And that's where we figured out that Pluto belongs to another family and created a category
02:25of dwarf planets.
02:29There are a couple of differences between these two categories.
02:32The first obvious difference is size and mass.
02:36Major planets are much bigger and more massive.
02:38They also have to be spherical, while dwarf planets might not be perfect spheres and might
02:43have weird shapes, like an egg-shaped Haumea, for example.
02:47And just like a regular planet, a dwarf planet orbits the Sun, but it doesn't have a clear
02:52orbit.
02:53Its orbit is full of debris and random objects.
02:56These are the only differences between the two.
02:58Well, as you can imagine, the reclassification sparked quite a controversy.
03:03People even made up a new term, Pluto, which means downgraded.
03:08Although it might be sad that Pluto isn't a major planet anymore, we can look at it
03:13like a story about finding your true family.
03:19And finally, while standing on Pluto, you would see its five moons – Styx, Nix, Kerberos,
03:25Hydra, and the most mysterious one, Chiron.
03:29Also pronounced Sharon.
03:31So you can pronounce it however you like, I'm gonna go with Sharon.
03:35Now Chiron is Pluto's largest moon.
03:38It was discovered in the 70s thanks to NASA's spacecraft called New Horizons.
03:43The spacecraft took a picture that revealed a moon with a strange and fascinating huge
03:48red-brown spot on its surface.
03:50It's a vast canyon dwarfing the Grand Canyon.
03:53It seems that both Pluto and its moon can boast interesting formations on their surface.
03:58The thing about Chiron is that it's very big for a moon – it's about half the size
04:03of Pluto.
04:04This makes scientists wonder, could it be that Pluto is a double-planet system?
04:09The center of mass, or barycenter, of Pluto and Chiron lie outside of Pluto.
04:14Normally, with planets and their moons, the center of the planet itself should be the
04:19center of the mass, with the moon orbiting around it.
04:22But in the case of these two, it seems like they orbit each other.
04:27Binary objects are quite common in the Universe.
04:29These cosmic pairs form just like our moon, from giant impact events.
04:34But double planets are exceedingly rare, and we haven't discovered any double dwarf planets
04:39yet.
04:40So, if it's true, then Chiron is actually the 6th dwarf planet, and that would be our
04:45first binary dwarf planet system ever.
04:48There's also another candidate, the dwarf planet Eris, and its moon Dysnomia.
04:55The Solar System is full of mysterious and fascinating moons.
04:59So fascinating that some of them might not even have actual life on them.
05:03We've been talking about microscopic life in space for a while now.
05:07The debates about whether we've found some organic fossils on Mars or not have been going
05:12on for decades.
05:14With the development of our technology, we're finally getting onto something.
05:19Meet Enceladus, who has stolen the spotlight since NASA's Cassini probe arrived there.
05:24Enceladus is covered in a sort of snowy blanket, which is why it's so unusually bright and
05:30has some snow-covered craters.
05:32It's small, only about 310 miles, and is mostly composed of simple rock and ice.
05:37But in 2004, we found plumes of water bursting out from this moon's south pole, which means
05:44that there's liquid water beneath this moon's icy surface.
05:48It's probably because of Saturn and its other larger moon, Dion.
05:52Their gravitational dance creates tidal forces that keeps Enceladus warm and lively.
05:58All this means that Enceladus is now a top candidate in the search for life within our
06:02solar system.
06:04Of course, life requires more than just water, and we won't find any animals there or anything
06:09like that.
06:10But we might find some microscopic organisms, and that's awesome too.
06:18In fact, Saturn is winning the lottery when it comes to life candidates.
06:22For example, scientists have a wild idea that Titan, another of its moons, might be home
06:27to extraterrestrial life as well.
06:30Titan is a frosty moon, chilling at about minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit.
06:36Surprisingly, it has some lakes on its surface.
06:38But don't imagine your typical water bodies.
06:41These lakes are believed to be filled not with water, but with liquid ethane or methane.
06:47Back in 2005, NASA discussed that there might be life munching on chemicals, like acetylene
06:53or hydrogen, in Titan's lakes.
06:56And then, in 2010, NASA investigated this moon some more.
07:00They found missing hydrogen and acetylene on Titan's surface, hinting at the possibility
07:06of something eating away at these substances.
07:09That's why some scientists dared to imagine methane-eating beings in Titan's freezing
07:14lakes.
07:15Moreover, they suggested that, if these creatures exist, they probably have much larger cells
07:20than animals on Earth.
07:22What we could find there is something much bigger than a simple microbe.
07:26Even something like a small animal.
07:30But Saturn isn't the only lucky one.
07:33Triton is Neptune's biggest moon.
07:35And you guessed it, it's another life candidate.
07:38It's an icy world with frozen nitrogen all over its surface and a crust made of water
07:43ice – again, super chilly.
07:45However, Triton is a hotspot for geologists because it's one of just five moons in our
07:51solar system that likes to show off with its active geysers.
07:54It's shooting nitrogen gas up into space.
07:58That would be a cool show, if we could see that.
08:01These geysers mean that Triton has some secret source of warmth.
08:05Which means that, just like with Enceladus, there might be some liquid water underground
08:09on Triton.
08:11And if this cozy spot for life does exist, we might find some organics there.
08:18Unfortunately, sending a mission to explore these celestial bodies isn't easy.
08:23The only spacecraft we've sent so far was our Voyager 2 in 1989.
08:28We need more time, money, and technology to develop spacecrafts that would be able to
08:33travel far and investigate the area beyond Mars.
08:36And even if we do, it'll take decades for this spacecraft to reach these places.
08:41In any case, let's hope that, during the 21st century, we'll finally be able to fully
08:46explore our solar system and all its mysteries.
08:51That's it for today.
08:55So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your
08:59friends.
09:00Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!