r/interestingasfuck 3d ago

Views of pluto through the years r/all

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u/Infinite-Condition41 3d ago edited 3d ago

And yet, it wasn't discovered with telescopes, it was discovered with math.

Take that flat earthers.

Edit: Upon further research, this isn't strictly true. Mathematics suggested locations for the possible location of a ninth planet but it was telescopes and photography and comparing pictures looking for moving objects which eventually nailed down it's existence. Unlike Uranus, Pluto doesn't have the mass to noticeably affect the orbits of the other, much larger, planets.

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u/Jbell_1812 3d ago

How was an entire planet discovered witn math? I'm not trying to be mean I'm genuinely curious

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u/HillbillyTechno 3d ago

Something along the lines of, they detected it’s presence because of the gravitational effect it had on other planets orbit, they used math to determine there had to be another large mass and roughly where it should be.

Edit: I’m a Joe shmo so someone who knows more about it feel free to pop in and correct me

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u/biblionoob 3d ago

Hi il someone who kind of know, we do that in H.S physics class. Its not that complicated you can do that with vector. Like determining the mass of the sun by studying earth orbit kind of stuff. Its widely impressive to me how smart they were to determine those equation and find the math behind it.