Pluto (5th Outer Planet)

Percival Lowell -A Great Astronomer

-was absolutely convinced that somewhere beyond Neptune there was an undiscovered 9th Planet (Planet X)

-he died in 1916 exhausted by his search

Clyde W. Tombaugh -was the first to discovered Pluto as the 9th planet in the Solar System from the Arizona's Lowell Observatory.

Pluto-It was discovered on February 18th,1930 where in it was publicly announced on March 13th, 1930.

-was the coldest, smallest, and outermost planet.(The sky is so dark in Pluto that a person would be able to see stars during day)  -was the Roman god of darkness and the underworld.

Size of Pluto

-has a diameter of only 1,485 miles

(2,300 kilometers).

Mass and Gravity of Pluto

Pluto's mass is about 1.29 x 1022 kg. This is about 1/500th of the mass of

the Earth. The gravity on Pluto is 8% of the gravity

on Earth. (Ex. A 100 pound person on Pluto would weigh only 8 pounds.)

LENGTH OF A DAY AND YEAR ON PLUTO

Each day on Pluto takes 6.39 Earth days.

Each year on Pluto takes 248 Earth years (that is, it takes 248 Earth years for Pluto to orbit the Sun once).

PLUTO'S ORBIT

-It takes Pluto 248 Earth years to rotate around the sun.

-Pluto distance from Sun is about 4.447 billion to 7.38 billion km from the Sun.

Temperature on Pluto-Pluto is very, very cold. The average

temperature on Pluto is –390° F (–235° C)

Pluto’s Atmosphere-Pluto has a very thin atmosphere of nitrogen and methane. -The atmosphere forms when Pluto is closest to the Sun and the frozen methane is vaporized by the solar heat. When it is farther from the Sun, the methane freezes again.

Pluto’s Composition

-Pluto has a core and two ice mantle.

It was probably made up of about 70% rock and 30%

water.

Surface

two different parts; an icy part and a rocky part, the icy part is nitrogen ice.

PLUTO'S MOONS Charon

- was discovered by Jim Christy in July 1978.

- was named after the mythological demon who ferried people across the

mythological river Styx into Hades.

-covered mainly by dark water ice

Nix and Hydra-the two tiny moons were discovered in 2005

Kerberos-Another moon, P4, was discovered by the Hubble Space

Telescope in 2011.

Pluto and Charon

-were called double planets

Pluto is no longer a Planet

Pluto as a dwarf planet

Dwarf Planet

-a celestial body that, within the Solar System.

-Was adopted in 2006

International Astronomical Union (IAU)

-the official scientific body for astronomical nomenclature

What is a planet today?

According to the new definition, a full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. In addition, a planet has to dominate the neighborhood around

its orbit.

No spacecraft has visited Pluto, though in July 2015

the spacecraft New horizons, which was launched in 2006, is scheduled to fly by Pluto on it’s way to the Kuiper

belt.

References: www.outerspace.com

www.astronomy.com

history-of-space-exploration.com

wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Research_Center