Pluto:If it is no longer a planet, then what is it?
What is Pluto?
Pluto was discovered on February 18,1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Pluto is considered the ninth and most distant from the sun, it is now known as a dwarf planet. Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond Neptune. It was the first Kuiper belt object to be discovered. Pluto has 5 moons, Charon, Hydra, Nix, Styx and Kerberos.
What is a Dwarf Planet?
A dwarf planet is a celestial body that orbits the sun. It has enough mass to assume a nearly round shape. It has also not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit and it is not a moon. The main distinction between a dwarf planet and a planet is that planets have cleared the path around the sun while dwarf planets tend to orbit in zones of similar objects that can cross their path around the sun, such as the asteroid and Kuiper Belts. Dwarf planets also are generally smaller than the planet Mercury.
The first five recognized dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. Scientists believe there may be dozens or even more than 100 dwarf planets awaiting discovery.
Why is Pluto no longer considered to be a Planet?
The reason why Pluto is no longer considered a Planet is because it only follows 2 of the 3 rules of being a planet. Which is rather stupid in my opinion. But that's my opinion.
The rules are as follows:
- A planet must be round.
- A planet must orbit the sun
- A planet must have cleared the neighborhood or it's orbit. This means as a planet travels , its gravity sweeps and clears the space around it of other objects. Some of the objects may crash into the planet, others may become moons.
Fun Facts about Pluto:
- Pluto is the size of the moon
- It takes approximately 248 Earth years for Pluto to make one trip around the sun. Since astronomers discovered Pluto in 1930, it has not completed one trip around the sun. It still has more than 150 Earth years to go.
- Pluto is so far away that it takes more than five hours for light from the sun to reach it. The suns light takes just 8 minutes to get to Earth.
- Pluto is smaller than Earth's Moon.
Well done Grace. I liked the diagram and the facts, they were very interesting. I also like the picture explaining where Pluto is compared to the Earth. :-)
ReplyDeleteNice Grace you hAve some interesting facts nice
ReplyDeleteNice Grace you hAve some interesting facts nice
ReplyDeleteNice job liked ur facts
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