This is a mini series of caches that extend the exploration of the Solar System started with the Pasadena Solar System Adventure Lab and AL bonus cache (GC93RG8). Since the five stops of the Adventure Lab only visited the planets known to the ancient world, this extended series takes you to the rest of the Solar System! The actual cache location is N 34° 07.HIJ W 118° 01.KLM where the missing digits can be found by solving a Solar System Quiz:
(A) is the number of days (rounded off) for Pluto to rotate on its axis
(B) is the month in 2006 when Pluto was "demoted" to dwarf planet status by the IAU
(C) is the (rounded) number of times denser than water Pluto is
(D) is the number of letters in the name of the trans-neptunian dwarf planet more massive than Pluto
(E) is the number of known moons of Pluto (including Charon)
(F) is the number of letters in the name of the Pluto moon that orbits between Styx and Kerberos
H=F I=A+B-E J=E K=C+D-A L=B M=B-C-A
In keeping with the theme of the Lab, the cache is located at the scale distance from the Sun of dwarf double planet Pluto/Charon. The Sun is located at Paseo Colorado in Old Town Pasadena. The cache is log only.
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. The double planet nature of Pluto was revealed in 1978 by James Christy with the discovery of its companion Charon. Pluto and Charon rotate synchronously and revolve around their common center of mass in a period of 6.4 days. They are among the largest objects in the Kuiper belt family of the outer Solar System and are considered dwarf planets. The Pluto system was explored in 2015 by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft, which revealed it to be a world of surprising geological diversity, with towering ice mountains and smooth plains of solid nitrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and other volatile compounds. At this model scale, diminutive Pluto would be about the size of a pea 5 mm across and Charon would be one half that size. Pluto and Charon take 248 years to complete an orbit of the Sun.
