Pluto

Pluto is the smallest of the nine planets discovered in our solar system. Pluto was discovered because of variations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Pluto will be at its best for observations in 1999 because it will be closer to the Earth than usual. Pluto's orbit is more elliptical than the other planets and it is tilted at a 17 degree angle to the orbits of most of the other planets. Due to the gigantic planets that come before Pluto many people wonder if Pluto is a true planet at all or is it really a moon?

Pluto is 3,660,000,000 miles from the sun. It is 1,430miles in diameter smaller than Earths moon. Pluto spins on its axis once every six days and nine hours. A revolution around the sun takes Pluto 248 years. Pluto's single moon Charon is half as large as Pluto itself. Gravity on Pluto is very weak. A person who weighs 100 pounds on Earth will weigh only four pounds on Pluto. Pluto appears very dark for the sun appears only as a bright star in its sky. The temperature is very cold having an average temperture of about -380 degrees F (-230 degrees C). Pluto's surface seems to be covered in methane ice. When the planet is close to the sun some of the gas may melt away, creating a very thin atmosphere of methane gas. Pluto is at the edge of the solar system, being the farthest of the nine planets from the sun. Sometimes due to Plutos elliptical orbit it passes in front of Neptune. Neptune then for a brief moment becomes the farthest planet from the sun.

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