Pluto reaches opposition only 11 hours after, and one constellation east from Juno,
whose path we showed yesterday.
Being 19 times farther from us (34.6 and 1.8 astronomical units or Sun-Earth distances), it is far dimmer (magnitudes 14.4 and 9.2).
Pluto was denoted from major planet to dwarf planet in 2006; asteroid 3 Juno has not (yet) been promoted to dwarf planet as has her larger sister, 1 Ceres. Pluto is now officially 134340 Pluto; it could have had the more rememberable number 10000 if Brian Marsden’s proposal in 1998 that that number be reserved for it had been accepted by the International Astronomical Union.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.
One way: right-click, and choose ”View image” or ”Open image in new tab”, then enlarge. Or choose ”Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or, if you click ‘Refresh’ or press function key 5, you’ll see the version change to the latest.