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/KnightOfWords 3d ago

You're probably thinking of Neptune, which was discovered due to discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus, suggesting another unseen planet was affecting it.

The search for Planet X was inspired by the same technique, due to supposed deviations in Neptune's orbit. Pluto was discovered but it isn't nearly massive enough to significantly affect Neptune's orbit. When Voyager 2 visited Uranus and Neptune estimates of their mass were refined, the supposed deviations turned out to be an error.

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u/eb6069 3d ago

So, is it not possible to view Neptune through a standard earth bound telescope?

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u/scalyblue 3d ago

Neptune has an apparent magnitude of just under 8, impossible to see with the naked eye, with an 8 inch telescope you might see a tiny blue dot, but Neptune is barely over 2 arc seconds wide so emphasis on tiny, it’s basically something you’d never find unless you know where you expect it to be

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u/eb6069 3d ago

Thank you.

I always assumed we could find anything in our solar system by conventional means, that is very interesting.

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u/United_Spread_3918 3d ago

Then you might find reading about the planet 9 stuff. Growing belief that the math supports yet another planet in our solar system that we haven’t detected yet. Far out there, but it’s interesting that even today we still have that uncertainty even about the stuff relatively closest to us

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u/eb6069 3d ago

Is that the "Planet X" theory? If so, I've delved into it a couple of times on YouTube to have a layman's idea on this mystery planet in the heliosphere and generally find it as a discovery that's worth celebrating over haha