Download Pluto - Humble ISD

NASA IMAGE OF THE DAY
PLUTO
Discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh
named by an 11-year-old girl Venetia Burney after the Roman god of the
underworld
Officially stripped of its status as our Solar System's 9th planet by the
International Astronomical Union in August 2006
Pluto is now officially classified as a
dwarf planet. It is one of the largest
members of a class of icy spheres known as
Kuiper Belt Objects.
ACCORDING TO THE IAU…
Planets must:
1.
2.
3.
Orbit the sun and no other body
Be roughly spherical
Must control objects in their orbit
Pluto does not meet the third requirement
BY THE NUMBERS
Distance from sun: 39.5 AU
Rotation rate: 6.4 Earth days
Revolution rate: 248 Earth years
Moons: 5
Eccentricity: .25
Tilt: 17 degrees
Temperature: -387 degrees Fahrenheit
Size: smaller than Earth’s moon
ATMOSPHERE
Methane, nitrogen, carbon monoxide
Since its orbit is so elliptical, when Pluto is close to the sun, its surface
sublimates, changing directly from solid to a gas, and rise and temporarily
form a thin atmosphere. Pluto's low gravity (about six percent of Earth's)
causes the atmosphere to be much more extended in altitude than our planet's
atmosphere. Pluto becomes much colder during the part of each orbit when it
is traveling far away from the sun. During this time, the bulk of the planet's
atmosphere is thought to freeze and fall as snow to the surface.
MISSION
New Horizons spacecraft is designed to make the first close-up study of Pluto
and its moons and other icy worlds in the distant Kuiper Belt
July 2015 New Horizons became the first spacecraft to explore Pluto up
close.
The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons has traveled more time
and distance - more than nine years and three billion miles - than any space
mission in history to reach its primary target.
OTHER DWARF PLANETS
1. Ceres (Asteroid belt)
2. Pluto
3. Haumea (Kuiper belt)
4. Makemake (Kuiper belt)
5. Eris (past Kuiper belt)