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. | |
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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 |