Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, making it our solar system's ninth planet. It is a relatively frigid planet that exists outside of Neptune's orbit.
National Pluto Demoted Day is on August 24, and to celebrate, we’re dusting off our telescopes in the spirit of planetary research! After nearly 80 years as an official planet, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet. Can you believe it? Since Pluto is not the dominant object in its orbit around the sun, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) determined in 2006 that it could no longer be considered an official planet. Other large bodies, such as Pluto’s moon, are located in its vicinity.
Pluto was discovered by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, making it our solar system’s ninth planet. It is a relatively frigid planet that exists outside of Neptune’s orbit.
After its discovery, the Lowell Observatory received over a thousand name suggestions for the newly discovered planet. Pluto, named after the Roman deity of the underworld, emerged victorious.
In 1992, Pluto’s status as a planet was questioned due to the detection of large objects in its vicinity, including one with a greater mass than Pluto itself. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reached a consensus on a definition of ‘planet’ that excluded Pluto. Since then, it has been referred to as a ‘dwarf planet.’
A dwarf planet is a celestial body that orbits the sun and has sufficient mass to adopt a nearly spherical shape, but has not cleared the region around its orbit and is not a moon.
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Pluto’s distance from the Sun causes its day to last 153 hours.
In 1930, a juvenile girl named Venetia Burney (only 11 years old) came up with the name Pluto.
Pluto’s surface temperature ranges between -378°F and -396°F, which is extremely frigid.
Pluto is 3,600,000,000 miles from the Sun.
Before its official discovery in 1930, astronomers suspected the existence of Planet X, a planet that would help explain Uranus’ orbit.
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | August 24 | Thursday |
| 2024 | August 24 | Saturday |
| 2025 | August 24 | Sunday |
| 2026 | August 24 | Monday |
| 2027 | August 24 | Tuesday |
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