-Pluto- Meghan

PLUTO

has 3 moons:

Charon

Nix

Hydra

Pluto's status has been debated almost since its discovery in 1930. It meets all of the criteria to be a planet, except one. Its orbit falls among the Kuiper Belt.

Planet= something that orbits areound a sun, has enough gravity to make it round, and cleared other things out of its Orbit path.

Dwarf Planet= something that orbits the sun, has enough gravity to be round, does not clear away other objects and is not a satilite.

Pluto is the farthest away from the sun, its orbit is about 5,913,520,000 km away from the Sun. That means that it is way to cold to have liquid water, making life impossible. Tempetures range from -387° Fahrenheit to -369° Fahrenheit. Aslo because it is so far away, schentists have to wait for its orbit to be closest to earth in order to study its surface.

Pluto

Pluto is smaller then our own moon. It can fit into the USA with one of its moons and has room to spare.

Pluto was discovered by mistake. The planet X was thought to exist due to discoveries by Percival Lowell. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh, a 24-year-old took pictures of the sky every 2 weeks and observed the change. The shift of an object among the stars proved Plutos exsitence on Febuary 18 1930.

The new discovery was named after the Roman god of the underworld, or as some people suspect, after its discover. Percival Lowell (P.L.uto).

Bibliography

Arnett, Bill. "Pluto." Nineplanets. 15 Sept. 2006. 19 Oct. 2007 <http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/pluto.html>.

Harvey, Samantha. "Pluto." Solar System Exploration. 26 Apr. 2007. NASA. 19 Oct. 2007 <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Pluto>.

"Pluto." Think Quest. 19 Oct. 2007 <http://library.thinkquest.org/C002416/pluto/index.htm>.

"Discovery of Pluto." The Planet Pluto. 1999. 19 Oct. 2007 <http://library.thinkquest.org/28327/html/universe/solar_system/planets/pluto/exploration/discovery_of_pluto.html>.

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