Cambridge Scientists Helped New Horizons With Directions To Pluto
Pluto, right, and its largest moon, Charon, which Scott Kenyon calls a binary planet.
When I asked Scott Kenyon about his reaction to the news that New Horizons had actually flown by Pluto, his answer wasn't that different from those of the myriad of people I've chatted with about it, from scientists to educators to regular Janes and Joes.
"Well, it's pretty exciting," Kenyon said.
But as a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Kenyon — unlike most of us — really understands the gritty details of what's going on. In fact, he and his partner's work helped the New Horizons team figure out the path for Tuesday's historic flyby.
"They had several options, and I think that the numerical calculations that I do with Ben Bromley helped inform them exactly how they should go through the system," Kenyon said.
Kenyon's work centers on the formation of planets. And the dwarf planet Pluto is unlike any other in our solar system. Like many of our planets, it has moons. But unlike the others, Pluto’s largest moon doesn't simply revolve around it.
"Pluto/Charon is this binary planet, so there's a point in between Pluto and Charon that they’re both orbiting around every 6.4 days," he said.
Now, we have some pretty refined theories about binary planet systems and how they form. But they’re theories. Until now, we’ve not seen — or measured — a binary system up close.