Pluto: A Dwarf Planet

Pluto

• Pluto is the smallest planet in the Solar System.

• It was found to be a dwarf planet. • Scientist say that Pluto is not a planet.• The discovery of Pluto made headlines

across the globe, and its name was proposed by Venetia Burney, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England

Pluto

In our solar system, nine planets circle around our Sun. The Sun sits in the middle while the planets travel in circular paths (called orbits) around it. These nine planets travel in the same direction (counter- clockwise looking down from the Sun's north pole). The picture on the right shows the different paths and positions of each

Pluto

• Pluto is a very cold planet .• Pluto orbits beyond the orbit of Neptune

(usually). It is much smaller than any of the official planets and now classified as a "dwarf planet". Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton).

Pluto

Pluto is tilted 122.5 degrees on its axis, which basically means that it is rotating on its head! . Pluto has an extreme elliptical orbit. Because of the shape of Pluto's orbit, it actually slips inside of Neptune's orbit once every 248 Earth years for a period of twenty years. Pluto has three natural satellites. One of these moons, Charon, is half the size of Pluto and is located close to Pluto. Two additional moons, called Nix and Hydra, were discovered in 2005. They are small (between 60 and 200 km wide) and located much farther away from Pluto that Charon is located

Pluto

• After its discovery in 1930, Pluto was classified as the ninth solar system planet. However, as scientists learned more about our solar system, it was realized that Pluto had little in common with the other eight planets. Pluto was re-classified as a dwarf planet in August 2006.

Pluto

• The astronomers have demoted Pluto so there are now only eight planets; Pluto is no longer officially a planet. Now they're calling it a "dwarf planet". Well, it's certainly a dwarf. But planet or not, it's still out there and we can still try to find out what it's made of and how it got there

Pluto

• In Roman mythology, Pluto is the god of the underworld.

• In Greek mythology, he is known• as Hades, ruler of the underworld. • The planet received this name perhaps

because it's so far from the • Sun that it is in perpetual darkness.

 

Pluto

• After the discovery of Pluto, it was quickly determined that Pluto was too small Read more about Pluto l Pluto facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

Pluto PLUTOPluto means: Pluto was thought to be the god to whom all men must eventually go. Romans believed him to be the god of the underworld. His name in Greece was Hades.

How much would you weigh on Pluto? Because Pluto is so small you would be very light if you visited. If you weigh 70 pounds on Earth, you would only weigh 4 pounds on Pluto

PLUTO

• Pluto has three moons. The largest is named Charon. Charon is only slightly smaller than its parent Pluto. For this reason Pluto and charon are often called a double system. The Earth and its moon Luna are sometimes considered double planets.

PLUTO

• Pluto is so far away, that no satellites have ever been sent there. This means that we have no good pictures of it. All we can do is guess what it must look like. Pluto is smaller than 7 of the moons in the Solar System. Because it is so small many scientists don't consider it a planet at all.

PLUTO

• Fortunately, Pluto has a satellite, Charon. By good fortune, Charon was discovered (in 1978) just before its orbital plane moved edge-on toward the inner solar system. It was therefore possible to observe many transits of Pluto over Charon and vice versa. By carefully calculating which portions of which body would be covered at what times, and watching brightness curves, astronomers were able to construct a rough map of light and dark areas on both bodies .

PLUTO

• Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina. Pluto would have obeyed, but by then, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds, whether of her own accord or through Pluto's trickery. Having tasted the food of the underworld, she could not leave, but when Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with him. He said that since she had stolen his six pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him six months of the year, but could remain above ground the rest of the time. For this reason, in spring when Ceres received her daughter back, the crops blossomed and flowers colored in a beautiful welcome to her daughter, and in summer they flourished. In the autumn, Ceres changed the leaves to shades of brown and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina before she had to return to the underworld.[citation needed] During the time that Proserpina resided with Pluto, the world went through winter, a time when the earth was barren

PLUTO• Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina. Pluto

would have obeyed, but by then, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds, whether of her own accord or through Pluto's trickery. Having tasted the food of the underworld, she could not leave, but when Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with him. He said that since she had stolen his six pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him six months of the year, but could remain above ground the rest of the time. For this reason, in spring when Ceres received her daughter back, the crops blossomed and flowers colored in a beautiful welcome to her daughter, and in summer they flourished. In the autumn, Ceres changed the leaves to shades of brown and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina before she had to return to the underworld.[citation needed] During the time that Proserpina resided with Pluto, the world went through winter, a time when the earth was barren

PLUTO

• Pluto was discovered in 1930 by a fortunate accident. Calculations which later turned out to be in error had predicted a planet beyond Neptune, based on the motions of Uranus and Neptune. Not knowing of the error, Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Arizona did a very careful sky survey which turned up Pluto anyway Read more about Pluto l Pluto facts, pictures and information. by nineplanets.org

PLUTO

• I THINK PLUTO IS A VERY INTERESTING PLANET HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR PROJECT