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| The planet is named both for the Roman god Pluto, and for the astronomer ], who predicted that a planet would be found beyond Neptune. | The planet is named both for the Roman god Pluto, and for the astronomer ], who predicted that a planet would be found beyond Neptune. | ||
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Revision as of 15:08, 11 June 2002
Pluto is the ninth and smallest planet of our solar system. It was discovered by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1930. Tombaugh was searching for a "Planet X" to explain the orbit of Neptune; further analysis, with seven decades more data about Neptune's position, has resolved the perceived anomaly without need for an additional gravitational pull on Neptune. Its highly eccentric orbit makes it the eighth-most distant planet from the Sun for part of each orbit. Pluto orbits in a 3/2 resonance with Neptune. Because of its small size and eccentric orbit, there has been some debate over whether it truly should be classified as a planet. There is mounting evidence that Pluto may in fact be a member of the Kuiper Belt, only one of a large number of distant icy bodies. A subclass of such objects have been dubbed plutinos, after Pluto.
- Approximate Mass: 1.29×10 kilograms
- Approximate Diameter: 2300 kilometres
- Approximate Surface Area: 17 million km
- Average Distance from the Sun: 39.53 Astronomical units
- Rotational Period: 6.39 days
- Revolution Period: 247.7 years
- Axial Tilt: 122.5 degrees
- Mean Temperature: 37 Kelvin
Pluto has an atmosphere when it is close to perihelion; the atmosphere freezes out as Pluto moves further from the Sun.
Pluto has one natural satellite, Charon. Little is known about Pluto because of its great distance from Earth and because no exploratory spacecraft have visited Pluto yet.
NASA has approved a mission to Pluto, to be conducted by The Southwest Research Institute. (Referred to as "Pluto Express")
The planet is named both for the Roman god Pluto, and for the astronomer Percival Lowell, who predicted that a planet would be found beyond Neptune.
This photo of Pluto, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, is currently our best view of this distant object.
Solar system:
Sun - Mercury - Venus - Earth - Mars - Asteroids - Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune - Pluto - Comets