More time and attention for the most littles in the class – Pluto and Charon

Tamara Bivol, XII E

I remember learning the planets of the Solar System when I was just a kid: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, and so on. I never forgot Pluto, although it was the last and the tiniest one. I always
drew it on posters, using the smallest 1-cent coin and made it almost as big as Jupiter. That was
my way to protect a little subtle object in our “extended family”, which most of my colleagues
forgot about.
Little did I know that, for some years, even scientists will consider other planets more
adventurous and promising mysteries to discover. They even “dismissed” Pluto from the family
of planets, calling it only a “dwarf planet” in 2006. As a result, the textbooks almost ignored
Pluto, not to mention the Kuiper Belt.
The child inside me was indignant at that time and the 20 years-old child I am today would still
be if things hadn’t changed in the meantime. I was mad because one thought I had: I’ve always
believed that Pluto “says more than he knows”, that he has more than he can show us, being so
far away and that maybe in the depth of his ice and darkness are more answers than we’ve ever
thought would be. The simple fact that he is the shy, little guy in the class doesn’t make him
unimportant.
But time passed and Pluto gained popularity as much as controversy rose around it. The New
Horizons mission was launch and I still believe this name perfectly fits what this mission will
bring us – new horizons on Pluto’s world and not only. We already know one of these horizons
and it turned out to be as impressive as I thought as a kid.
It’s about Charon, Pluto’s biggest moon, the one that set the record for the biggest moon in
comparison to its home planet in the whole Solar System. Even without Pluto, the satellite
would stand as an individual, worth taking into account solar object. However, Charon and
Pluto form, perhaps, the cutest binomial in the entire space. They revolve around each other,
having a tied and strong magnetic bond. The New Horizons spaceship captured beautiful
images of Charon and Pluto revolving, back in 2014. All these details are impressive, but is it
enough?
The answer is NO. We’re far from understanding the history and the present of these entities.
As the majority of moons do, Charon shows only one side to Pluto and it is our responsibility
to find out what it hides. Charon and Pluto guard the end of the world we know better.
Elucidating these mysteries would start another era. That’s why it is utterly important for
humans to continue researching on Charon and Pluto. After all, we do owe some time to this
tiny object of the space. And continuing the New Horizon mission in depth around Pluto is the
most we can do.