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Pluto
By: Morgan Barksdale
&
Madison Dixon
What Pluto is…
Pluto used to be known as the 9th planet in
our solar system. But, now it is known as a
“dwarf planet.”
Pluto is basically considered a “smaller
solar system body” and it is categorized
with asteroids such as Ceres.
Also, the fact that Pluto orbits around the
planet Neptune makes it a “dwarf planet”
What Pluto is made of…
Scientist say that Pluto is made mostly of
frozen nitrogen ice.
Pluto is not like the other outer gas planets
because it is the only planet after Jupiter
that has no gas.
It does not have gas because it is so far
away from the sun that the nitrogen
freezes.
Where the name “Pluto”
originated…
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Greek Mythology (Latinized), Roman
Mythology
Pronounced: PLOO-to
It comes from the Greek word Plouton which
means “wealth”
This was an alternate name for Hades, who was
the god of the underworld.
It might have gotten this name because it is
always in darkness just like the underworld
The color…
Most people assume that
the color of Pluto is blue,
but its not
Pluto is thought to be a
light brown
It is expected to be light
brown because of the
existence of dirty
methane ice on the
surface
Scientist don’t know the
“definite” color since it
has never actually been
visited by a spacecraft
The size…
Pluto is the tiniest planet in our solar system
It is about 2080 kilometers in diameter which is
about one-sixth the diameter of the earth
Many moons of the other planets are larger than
Pluto
(If Earth was a soccer ball, Pluto would be a
ping-pong ball)
Shockwave
http://www.akat.org/cesitli/space_jigsaw.s
wf
Pluto’s shape and tilt…
Pluto has a spherical shape (circle)
It might have this shape because of a
collision of two twin comets
This collision of the twin comets may have
also created one of Pluto's moons, Charon
Pluto has a tilt of 17 degrees
Pluto’s tilt keeps it from intersecting the
orbit of Neptune
The 3 moons of Pluto…
Pluto’s biggest moon is known as Charon. It
was discovered in 1978 and orbits about 12,000
miles away from the planet.
Recently, two other moons were discovered.
They were called P1 and P2.
Last May, Pluto’s other two satellites (moons)
were found by a team of scientist looking
through the Hubble Space Telescope. They
named Pluto’s new found moons Nix and Hydra.
Pictures of Pluto and Charon…
The orbit…
Pluto’s orbit has been found to be non
coplanar to the other eight planets.
Neptune and Pluto seem to have a
relationship when it comes to their orbits
because in the time it takes Pluto to orbit
the sun twice, Neptune has already orbited
three times.
Also, Pluto orbits Neptune without
intersecting Neptune's orbit
Pluto’s Atmosphere…
Pluto is one of four atmospheres that is
mostly made up of molecular nitrogen
The atmosphere is extremely thin and as
Pluto arrives at its closets point to the sun
the iced surface melts and as Pluto goes
away from the sun it refreezes
The temperature ranges from -400 to -360
Fahrenheit
Shockwave
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.
ac.uk/interactives/science/earthandbeyond
/earthandbeyond_c.swf
Revolution and Rotation
It takes Pluto and
average 59884 days
to make a complete
revolution
It also takes Pluto
sixteen hours to make
one rotation on its
axis
References
www.nineplanets.org/pluto.html
www.solarviews.com/eng/pluto.htm
www.solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.
cfm?Object=Pluto