Facts and Info about
the Planet Pluto

Facts and Info about the Planet Pluto
The Furthest planet from the Sun in our Solar System


Facts and Info about the Planet Pluto
The name Pluto is derived from the Mythical Roman god of the underworld (world of the dead). The Underworld was said to be separated from the land of the living by five rivers. One of these was the Styx, across which the dead were ferried by Charon the Ferryman. Three judges decided the fate of souls, heroes would be sent to the Elysian Fields, evildoers to Tartarus.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by the American Astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Tombaugh's find was in fact an accidental, he had in fact been trying to locate the mysterious "Planet X" which had erroneously been predicted to exist by several eminent experts, in an attempt to account for a perceived "missing mass" within our Solar System.

The Planet Pluto


How far is the Planet Pluto away from the Sun ?
Pluto is the furthest planet in our Solar system from the Sun, the average distance being 5913 million Km (39.5 Au), Earth by comparison is only a fortieth this distance away from the sun.

How big is it? Interesting Facts about the Planet Pluto
The Planet Pluto is the smallest Planet in our Solar System, it only has a diameter of about 2320km which is only about a fifth of the size of the Earth, it has the second smallest mass of all the Planets in our Solar System, approximately 1.29e22 kg.

What is it like on the surface of the Planet Pluto ?
Cold, very cold, there is a relatively small range of surface temperature on this Planet, varying from  approximately -235 to -210 C, these very cold temperatures reflect the Planet's great distance from the Sun. We know little of the make up of the Planet, and will not know much until it is visited by a Space Probe, but it is probable than it is two thirds rock and one third ice.

Facts about Space
 

Does the Planet Pluto have any Moons ?
Although most of the Planets in the Solar System posses multiple moons Pluto is one of the few planets which has only one, Charon, nearly as big as the Planet Pluto it's self ! Charon was discovered in 1978 by Jim Christy, and is named after the mythical ferryman who was said in Roman mythology to ferry the dead across the River Styx into the Underworld.

Facts and Info about Pluto, the God of the Underworld,
which was reached by being ferried across the river Styx by Charon

Planets and Solar System Index

Facts and Info about the Planet Pluto

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