Pluto

When American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh the planet Pluto on February 18, 1930, it turned out to be a major talking point in the world of science and for years afterwards. 

Many astronomers argued that it was not a proper because there were many other objects just as big in the same orbit as Pluto. Nevertheless, it was regarded as the planet in our Solar System. However, in 2006, after much discussion and debate, Pluto was downgraded to the status of a ‘dwarf planet’ at an international conference of .

Not much is about Pluto because it is so far from earth – 5.8 billion kilometres or thereabouts! It is believed to be made up of rock and ice and the on the surface is thought to be -225 Celsius. 

Pluto is a member of a group of objects that orbit in a disc-like zone, beyond the orbit of Neptune, called the Kuiper Belt. This realm is populated with thousands of miniature icy worlds, which formed early in the history of our system. These icy, rocky bodies are called Kuiper Belt objects or transneptunian objects.

The takes 365 days to orbit the sun but because Pluto is so far away it takes 248 earth years to complete its orbit. In 1930, many names were forward for the new planet but eventually, at the of an 11-year-old English girl, Venetia Burnley, it was named Pluto after the Roman of the underworld.

Pluto has a very large moon named Charon that is almost half its size, which was discovered in 1978. This moon is so big that Pluto and Charon are sometimes referred to as a double dwarf planet system. The distance them is 19,640 kilometres.