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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.
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