Pluto is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune. It was discovered in 1930 and was originally considered the ninth planet from the Sun. However, its status as a planet was later questioned as other similar objects were discovered in the Kuiper belt. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Pluto has a moderately eccentric orbit that takes it from 30 to 49 AU from the Sun. It has five known moons, the largest being Charon which is over half the diameter of Pluto. In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft performed a flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to do so.
Pluto is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune. It was discovered in 1930 and was originally considered the ninth planet from the Sun. However, its status as a planet was later questioned as other similar objects were discovered in the Kuiper belt. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Pluto has a moderately eccentric orbit that takes it from 30 to 49 AU from the Sun. It has five known moons, the largest being Charon which is over half the diameter of Pluto. In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft performed a flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to do so.
Pluto is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune. It was discovered in 1930 and was originally considered the ninth planet from the Sun. However, its status as a planet was later questioned as other similar objects were discovered in the Kuiper belt. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Pluto has a moderately eccentric orbit that takes it from 30 to 49 AU from the Sun. It has five known moons, the largest being Charon which is over half the diameter of Pluto. In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft performed a flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to do so.
Pluto is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune. It was discovered in 1930 and was originally considered the ninth planet from the Sun. However, its status as a planet was later questioned as other similar objects were discovered in the Kuiper belt. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union formally reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet. Pluto has a moderately eccentric orbit that takes it from 30 to 49 AU from the Sun. It has five known moons, the largest being Charon which is over half the diameter of Pluto. In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft performed a flyby of Pluto, becoming the first spacecraft to do so.
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Pluto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You have a new message (last change). Jump to navigationJump to search This article is about the dwarf planet. For the deity, see Pluto (mythology). For other uses, see Pluto (disambiguation).
Pluto
Northern hemisphere of Pluto in true color, taken by NASA's New
Horizons probe in 2015[a]
Discovery
Discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh
Discovery site Lowell Observatory
Discovery date February 18, 1930
Designations
Designation (134340) Pluto
Pronunciation /ˈpluːtoʊ/ ( listen)
Named after Pluto
Minor planet category Dwarf planet
Trans-Neptunian object
Plutoid
Kuiper belt object
Plutino
Adjectives Plutonian /pluːˈtoʊniən/[1]
Orbital characteristics[4][b]
Epoch J2000
Earliest precovery date August 20, 1909
Aphelion 49.305 AU
(7.37593 billion km)
February 2114
Perihelion 29.658 AU
(4.43682 billion km)[2]
(September 5, 1989)[3]
Semi-major axis 39.482 AU
(5.90638 billion km)
Eccentricity 0.2488
Orbital period 247.94 years[2]
90,560 d[2]
Synodic period 366.73 days[2]
Average orbital speed 4.743 km/s[2]
Mean anomaly 14.53 deg
Inclination 17.16°
(11.88° to Sun's equator)
Longitude of 110.299° ascending node
Argument of perihelion 113.834°
Known satellites 5 Physical characteristics
Dimensions 2,376.6±1.6 km (observations consistent
with a sphere, predicted deviations too
small to be observed)[5]
Mean radius 1,188.3±0.8 km[6][5]
0.1868 Earths
Flattening <1%[7]
Surface area 1.779×107 km2[c]
0.035 Earths
Volume (7.057±0.004)×109 km3[d]
0.00651 Earths
Mass (1.303±0.003)×1022 kg[7]
0.00218 Earths
0.177 Moons
Mean density 1.854±0.006 g/cm3[6][7]
Surface gravity 0.620 m/s2[e]
0.063 g
Escape velocity 1.212 km/s[f]
Sidereal rotation period 6.387230 d
6 d, 9 h, 17 m, 36 s
Equatorial 47.18 km/h rotation velocity
Axial tilt 122.53° (to orbit)[2]
North pole right 132.993°[8] ascension
North pole declination −6.163°[8]
Albedo 0.49 to 0.66 (geometric, varies by 35%)[2][9]
Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin 33 K 44 K (−229 °C) 55 K
Apparent magnitude 13.65[2] to 16.3[10]
(mean is 15.1)[2] Absolute magnitude (H) −0.7[11]
Angular diameter 0.06″ to 0.11″[2][g]
Atmosphere
Surface pressure 1.0 Pa (2015)[7][13]
Composition by volume Nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide[12]
Pluto (minor planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is an icy dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt,
a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It was the first and the largest Kuiper belt object to be discovered. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and declared to be the ninth planet from the Sun. After 1992, its status as a planet was questioned following the discovery of several objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt. In 2005, Eris, a dwarf planet in the scattered disc which is 27% more massive than Pluto, was discovered. This led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term "planet" formally in 2006, during their 26th General Assembly. That definition excluded Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object directly orbiting the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is primarily made of ice and rock and is relatively small —one-sixth the mass of the Moon and one-third its volume. It has a moderately eccentric and inclined orbit during which it ranges from 30 to 49 astronomical units or AU (4.4–7.4 billion km) from the Sun. This means that Pluto periodically comes closer to the Sun than Neptune, but a stable orbital resonance with Neptune prevents them from colliding. Light from the Sun takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its average distance (39.5 AU). Pluto has five known moons: Charon (the largest, with a diameter just over half that of Pluto), Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered a binary system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body. The New Horizons spacecraft performed a flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015, becoming the first ever, and to date only, spacecraft to do so. During its brief flyby, New Horizons made detailed measurements and observations of Pluto and its moons. In September 2016, astronomers announced that the reddish-brown cap of the north pole of Charon is composed of tholins, organic macromolecules that may be ingredients for the emergence of life, and produced from methane, nitrogen and other gases released from the atmosphere of Pluto and transferred 19,000 km (12,000 mi) to the orbiting moon.
