Scientists are trying to find out whether Pluto is a planet or a comet or something different. In order to find an answer to this question they have studied the treasure trove of data found by NASA’S New Horizons mission. They found that in our solar system Pluto’s interaction with the solar wind is unique. Ever since the International Astronomical Union’s 2006 decision to downgrade Pluto to a dwarf planet was made, experts have debated over Pluto’s status as to its correct classification. Now another confusion has been added by NASA’s New Horizons mission as they have highlighted other characteristics of the demoted planet that states that it is neither a planet nor a comet.
Reports found in Journal of Geophysical Research states that Pluto’s interaction with the solar wind is like nothing that astronomers have ever witnessed in our solar system. Author David J. McComas, who manages the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard New Horizons, said that the astonishing results fascinated and surprised them. He added we have now visited all nine of the classical planets and examined all their solar wind interactions, and we’ve never seen anything like this. They say solar wind is a plasma which is comprised of charged particles. They come from the sun at 100 million miles per hour and bathe’s everything that comes in its path with its celestial soup. When a planet is in its path, in a substantial region we find gentle slowing of solar wind, while as planets like Venus or Mars, causes an abrupt diversion. Earlier it was believed that Pluto was a planet that behaved like a comet. But now we find that Pluto is hybrid.
Dr. McComas, a professor in Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysical Sciences and vice president for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory says this is an intermediate interaction, a completely new type. It’s not comet-like, and it’s not planet-like. It’s in-betweeen.