Pluto

=//__**Introduction**__// =

Introducing the smallest planet we think of. PLuto is the farthest from the sun. And is the coldest because its postitoned in the dark. It was [|Discovered in 1930 by an american astronomer]. Pluto till this day had not been visited by a spacecraft from NASA. PLuto was striped as being a planet and now is know as a dwarf planet.Pluto has one know moon named Charon. PLuto was the Roman equivalent of the Greek god, Hades, ruler of the underworld. Was debated to be a dwarf planet. Naming it that was partly due to its distance from the sun, the distance keeping it in the dark, and cold.



Pluto's atmosphere is of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. little pressure,and mixture of water and ice causing freezing during most of its orbits causing a temp. at -446 degrees C. When closets to the sun, atmosphere is in its gaseous state, interacting with Charon. It is know that the [|Pluto Express mission] will visit the planet at its perihelion, when the atmosphere is all gas.

The lengths of Pluto's year is 249 earth days. The density ranges from 1.8 to2.1 grams per Centimeter cubed. The diameter being of it being 2,2880. Albedo map shows evidence of ice on the south region of pluto. Charon's density ranges of 1.2 to1.3 g/cm3, and consisting of rocky material upon it. People ask if Pluto is a planet. well do to its small size people consider it as a asteroid or comet. I[|n order for a planet to be considered a planet to] have its own gravitational field to form the body into a sphere. [|Discovery of Charon.] The satellite of Pluto was discovered in 1978. It had help people actually understand Pluto. By measuring the distance between and knowing its orbiting period.  Team of U.S. scientists of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), concludes that two newly discovered small moons of Pluto were very likely born in the same giant impact that gave birth to Pluto's much larger moon, [|Charon]. Large binary Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) may also frequently harbor small moons, and that the small moons orbiting Pluto may generate debris rings around Pluto. Artist's illustration showing a giant collision similar to Pluto's newly discovered moons scenario. Image credit: Don Davis Click to enlarge





=What we know! =

= =
 * ===Dwarf Planet===
 * ===Once was the 9th Planet===
 * ===farthest from the sun===
 * ===cold===
 * ===has not been visited by NASA===
 * ===Smaller than Earth===
 * ===249 earth years for 1 Pluto year===

= = = What i want to know! =
 * Q.** **How cold is Pluto?**
 * A.** [|Very very cold. Pluto is so far away from the Sun that temperatures can drop down to 33 Kelvin, or -240 Celsius.]


 * Q. How far is Pluto from the Sun?**
 * A.** [|Earth is about 93,000,000 miles from the sun, but Pluto is almost 40 times as far. That's almost four BILLION miles away. The sun must look pretty dim from so far away.]

Q. Who discovered Pluto? A. ** [|Clyde Tombaugh]**

  **Q. How long is the rotation?**
 * A.**   [|Pluto takes 6 days and 9 hours to complete one rotation]

 **A.** [|Because it travels at an angle of 17 degress.]
 * Q. Why does it switch places with Neptune?**


 * Q. How far from earth is Pluto**?
 * A.** [|So the closest distance accures when earth is at its farthest from the sun. And Pluto is the closest, And Sun, Earth and Pluto are all lined up. When this occures Pluto and earth would be 4.2 billion km.]

[|There was a spacecraft lounched in 2006 to pluto named New Horizon. It will not arrive till 2015.It will spend a 5 month flyby of Pluto and its moon Charon. And is hoping to extend the mission to one or more Kuiper Belt objects.]
 * Q. Why hav'nt we visited Pluto?**
 * A.** Pluto is located to far away.


 * Q. Are there any storms on Pluto?**
 * A.** [|Pluto's atmosphere is to c][|old to have any storms.]


 * Q. What would it be like to visit Pluto?**
 * A.** [|we dont know for fact, because we have not visited it yet, what we think is it appears very cold and dark, becaus eof its distance from the sun.][[image:NHLaunch_cooper_8.jpg width="294" height="196" align="right" link="http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/10/10.html"]]


 * Q. When we finally get good pictures of Pluto, what are we likely to find?**
 * A.** [|a possible image of freezing atmosphere, and possible a rough surface, because of forming ice, frost vaporising.]


 * Q. What are the other Dwarf Planets?**
 * A.** [|Ceres, Pluto, Eris]

[|Pluto is mostly brown, possible due to frozen methane on it.]
 * What color is Pluto?**