We were all taught in school that their are nine planets in the solar system - with Pluto being the smallest and the farthest away. But in August of 2006, five hundred astronomers in the Czech Republic voted Pluto "off the island", in Survivor . That's right, Pluto has been stripped of its planet status!
Pluto - Discovery and Background 1s672o
Pluto was discovered (by mistake) by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 when Clyde was looking for a different planet he believed existed. After finding Pluto, scientists continued to look for a 10th planet, but nothing was ever found.
Pluto - The Demotion 691y3d
[In order to be considered a planet by scientists, a body must be big enough to have cleared other debris (The Apprentice was harsh?
Pluto - Did U Know? 303872
- Pluto is practically impossible to spot while stargazing. Even when you use a telescope, it just looks like a star.
- Pluto is smaller than Earth's Moon.
- Pluto has a weird orbit. Sometimes it is closer to the Sun than Neptune - From January 1979 to February 1999 Pluto was closer to the Sun. It also rotates in the opposite direction from most of the other planets.
- Pluto didn't even make all the way around the Sun before it was stripped of its status as a planet. We've only known about Pluto's existance for 76 years, which was only enough time for it to make it a third of the way around.
| Properties of Pluto | |
|---|---|
| Mass | 1.29e+22 |
| Distance from Sun | 5,906 billion kms/3,906 billion miles |
| Distance from Earth | 4.4 billion kms/2.67 billion miles |
| Length of Year | 248 Earth years (to rotate the sun) |
| Rotation Time | 144 hours, 6 hours |
| Angle of Axis | 122.46 degrees |
| Diameter | 2340 kms/1454 miles |
| Number of Satellites | 1 |
| Number of Rings | Unknown |
| Number of Moons | 1 |
| Temperature | Average of -390 Fahrenheit/-233 Celsius |
| Weight on Pluto | A 100 pound person would weigh 6.9 pounds |
