Pluto:

(Say it in French! Pluton)

In 2006 Pluto was demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet.

 

More Facts About Pluto:

 

Size: 1,430 mi. diameter

Distance from Sun: 3,664 million mi. from the sun. In other words, Pluto is 9,967,290,000,000 houses from the sun!

Terrain/Surface: Rocky surface, most likely covered by frozen gases. Scientists think it is about 70% rock and 30% water ice.

Climate: It is very cold on Pluto because it is on the edge of the Solar System. It is far from the Sun therefore not much heat reaches Pluto.

Atmosphere: The thin atmosphere is thought to be made up of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane gas.

How Long is one Rotation of the Planet: 7 Earth days

How Long is one orbit of the Sun: 249 Earth years

Satellites: One moon, Charon. Charon is about half as large as Pluto. Pluto and Charon have the same period of rotation, making Charon appear, to someone on pluto, to be at the same point above the planet.

 

Fun Fact: In 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons probe. In February of 2007 it flew past Jupiter. It should reach Pluto in 2015!

Why did Pluto get demoted?

This is a very good question, but according to NASA's official website, Pluto is a dwarf planet because of it's small size and irregular orbit. Pluto, unlike it's outer planet siblings, is not a gas giant and that may be because Pluto was once a moon or asteroid that became knocked free of it's original orbit and took on an orbit around the sun of it's own. The irregular orbit of Pluto causes it, every 248 Earth years to orbit between Neptune and Uranus. This happens for about 20 Earth years before it travels back to an orbit outside of Neptune.

DID YOU KNOW?

Pluto is 2,356,860,000,000 horses from Earth