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Below are eleven facts about
Pluto and Dwarf Planets.
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Fact
One:
Pluto is the smallest planet in the Solar System, smaller than Earth's
Moon, and
half the width of Jupiter's moon, Ganymede.
Fact
Two:
Pluto orbits the Sun on a different plain than the other 8
planets, going over them and below them.
Fact
Three:
Pluto's orbit is elliptical, meaning that it can come closer to
the Sun than Neptune, but then go almost two
billion kilometres further away from Neptune's orbit. In the picture
below, you can see Pluto's orbit (in grey) and Neptune's orbit (in blue)
Fact
Four:
Pluto has one moon, Charon, which is not much smaller
than Pluto itself. No other moon is as close to the size of its
planet as Charon is to Pluto. (Pluto is 2,280 kilometres
wide, Charon is 1,212 kilometres wide).
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Fact
Five:
Pluto's journey around the Sun takes 248 Earth years. This means that,
since its discovery in 1930, it still has 177 years to go until
it has made a complete orbit around the Sun.
Fact
Six:
Pluto is the only planet in the Solar System not to have been visited
by a space probe.
Fact
Seven:
Pluto is the planet with the lowest pull of gravity in the Solar
System.
This will explain why its moon, Charon, orbits the planet so
closely (at a distance of 19,640 kilometres).
Fact
Eight:
Pluto was the only planet to have been discovered in the
Twentieth Century.
Fact
Nine:
A day on Pluto lasts for 6 days and 9 hours, meaning that it has
the second slowest speed of rotation in the Solar
System
(after Venus, which takes 243 days to turn on its axis).
Fact
Ten:
Nobody knows what Pluto's atmosphere contains, or even if it has
an atmosphere. Any atmosphere is most likely to contain nitrogen.
Fact Eleven:
Pluto's moon, Nix, is named after the Greek goddess of darkness and night. But,
in Greek mythology, her name is spelled "Nyx". To avoid getting the
moon confused with an asteroid which has already been called Nyx, and because
they couldn't be bothered to think of another name, the International Astronomy
Union (the people that give planets and moons names) changed the spelling to
"Nix", taking the Egyptian spelling of the name.
VIEW FACTS ABOUT OTHER
DESTINATIONS
The Sun - Mercury - Venus
- Earth - The Moon - Mars
- Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus
- Neptune - Pluto and Dwarf
Planets
PLANETARY STATISTICS
| NAME |
|
| MEANING OF
NAME |
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| NAME
IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES |
|
| AVERAGE
DISTANCE FROM THE SUN |
Comparison with
Earth: 149,597,890 km / 92,955,820 miles / 1.000 A.U. |
| CLOSEST
DISTANCE TO THE SUN (PERIHELION) |
Comparison with
Earth: 147,100,000 km / 91,400,000 miles / 0.983 A.U. |
| FARTHEST
DISTANCE FROM THE SUN (APHELION) |
Comparison with
Earth: 152,100,000 km / 94,500,000 miles / 1.017 A.U. |
| DIAMETER
ACROSS EQUATOR |
Comparison with
Earth: 12,756 km / 7,926 miles
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| DIAGRAM
SHOWING PLANET'S SIZE COMPARED TO THE SIZE OF EARTH |
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| CIRCUMFERENCE
AROUND EQUATOR |
Comparison with
Earth: 40,074 km / 24,901 miles |
| MASS |
Comparison with
Earth 5,973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg |
| TIME TO SPIN
ON AXIS |
Comparison with
Earth: 23 hours, 56 minutes |
| TIME TO ORBIT
THE SUN (1 YEAR) |
Comparison with
Earth: 365 days, 6 hours |
| DISTANCE
PLANET TRAVELS TO COMPLETE ONE ORBIT |
Comparison with
Earth: 924,375,700 km / 574,380,400 miles |
| GRAVITY (EARTH
= 1) |
|
| ESCAPE
VELOCITY |
Comparison with
Earth: 40,248 km/h / 25,009 mph |
| MINIMUM
SURFACE TEMPERATURE |
Comparison with
Earth: -88 °c / -126 °F / 185 K |
| MAXIMUM
SURFACE TEMPERATURE |
Comparison with
Earth: 58 °c / 136 ° F / 331 K |
| WEATHER
CONDITIONS |
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| CONTENTS OF
ATMOSPHERE |
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| KNOWN MOONS |
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| PAST MISSIONS
(including nationality and year of launch) |
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| PRESENT
MISSIONS |
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| PLANNED
MISSIONS |
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| NOTABLE
FEATURES |
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