plutogirl

You have often stated that planetary exploration begins with flyby missions, followed by orbiters, then landers, then rovers. If New Horizons finds very intriguing information about Pluto, do we currently have the technology to follow up with a Pluto orbiter in the near future (next 25 years)?

Will New Horizons' data about Pluto's atmosphere provide enough information for scientists to determine whether that atmosphere (at least some of it) is present during Pluto's entire 248-year orbit around the Sun?

Neither Ceres nor Pluto are "minor planets," as the term "minor planet" is a synonym for asteroids and comets, objects too small to be rounded by their own gravity, also known as Small Solar System Bodies.

Specific to Pluto, check out my Pluto Blog at http://laurelsplutoblog.blogspot.com . Spaceflight Insider does a good job covering space missions and can be found at http://www.spaceflightinsider.com .

This is not quite accurate, as it represents only one side in an ongoing debate. According to the geophysical planet definition, Pluto is a planet because it is a complex world large enough and massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity. There are no similarly sized objects orbiting with Pluto. All the KBOs in Pluto's orbit are tiny, shapeless rocks. There are several objects in the Kuiper Belt that are also small planets because they are in hydrostatic equilibrium, but they are in orbits more distant than Pluto's. Pluto is a planet according to this definition, which focuses on an object's intrinsic properties rather than on its location. Pluto most certainly is not a "planetoid," which is a synonym for asteroid, or tiny object shaped only by its chemical bonds.