PLUTO

A digital brochure by Kyla Duncan

HISTORY OF PLUTO

• It was first discovered as the ninth planet on February 18th, 1930 by astronomer, Tombaugh

• The discovery of Pluto was publicly announced on March 13th, 1930

• The surface temperature of Pluto is an estimated approximate of -360 Fahrenheit

• Pluto is named after the Roman name for the god of the underworld (in Greek mythology, this god’s name is Hades)

• The average distance from Pluto to the Sun is almost 4 billion miles

• It takes approximately 248 Earth years for Pluto to complete a single orbit

• Pluto has the most elliptical and tilted orbit of any of the planets

• When at its closest point to the Sun, it passes inside the orbit of Neptune (the eighth planet)

PLUTO AND CHARON

• James Christy and Robert Harrington discovered Pluto’s only known moon, Charon, in 1978

• Charon was determined to have a diameter of 737 miles to Pluto's 1,428 miles

• It as thought that, together, Charon and Pluto formed a double-planet system – which was ample enough mass to cause wobbles in Uranus’ and Neptune’s orbits

In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union announced that Pluto would no longer be considered a planet, due to new rules that said planets must "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." Since Pluto's oblong orbit overlaps that of Neptune, it was disqualified.

PROFILE

• Mass: 13,050,000,000,000 billion kg (0.00218 x Earth)

• Diameter: 2,306 km

• Known Satellites: 5

• Notable Satellites: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx

• Orbit Distance: 39.26 AU

• Orbit Period: Approx. 246.04 Earth years

• Surface Temperature: Approx. -360 Fahrenheit

• Date of Discovery: February 18th, 1930

• Discovered By: Clyde W. Tombaugh

INTERESTING FACTS

• Pluto is named after the Roman god of the underworld (in Greek: Hades)

• 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.

• Pluto takes the longest time of the eight planets (248 Earth years) to orbit around the sun.

• Pluto spins in the opposite direction as Earth, which means the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

• It takes about five hours for sunlight to reach Pluto

• In astrology, Pluto is associated with powers of creation/rebirth as well as destruction/death

• The sky is so dark on Pluto that a person would be able to see stars during the day

• On Pluto, the sun rises and sets about once a week

SOURCES

• http://www.space.com/43-pluto-the-ninth-planet-that-was-a-dwarf.html

• http://space-facts.com/pluto/

• http://facts.randomhistory.com/pluto-facts.html