Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris.
For almost 50 years, Pluto was thought to be larger than Mercury, [8] [9] but with the discovery in 1978 of Pluto's moon Charon, it became possible to measure Pluto's mass accurately and to determine that it was much smaller than initial estimates. [10] It was roughly one-twentieth the mass of Mercury, which made Pluto by far the smallest planet.
The letter following the category and year identifies the planet (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune; although no occurrence of the other planets is expected, Mars and Mercury are disambiguated through the use of Hermes for the latter). Pluto was designated by P prior to its recategorization as a dwarf planet. When the object is found around a ...
Pluto's reign. For decades, students learned the phrase "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" to remember the order of the planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars ...
Pluto was considered a planet up until 2006, when researchers at the International Astronomical Union voted to "demote" it to dwarf planet.
Doberman." About Pluto's reclassification, remembered as a 9th planet from the times of the singer's youth, and re-presents Pluto as an unforgotten monarch of the Kuiper Belt. [citation needed] "134340 Pluto" (2014), by Cojum Dip, a song from the point of view of Pluto asking what it did to anger the IAU.
Clyde William Tombaugh (/ ˈ t ɒ m b aʊ /; February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer.He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt.
Moon of Pluto: When discovered, Charon, the moon of Pluto, was found to be very large, leading to the declaration by many that the Pluto-Charon system was a double planet (binary planet). The 2006 IAU redefinition of planet excludes the possibility of double planets. [24] [25] [26] 15760 Albion: 1992 unknown Trans-Neptunian object