Facts About Pluto For Kids
Pluto is a dwarf planet that was discovered in 1930 by an astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh. It was thought to be the ninth planet in our solar system for many years, but in 2006 it was reclassified as a dwarf planet because of its small size and the fact that it does not clear its orbit of debris.
Here are some fun facts about Pluto for kids:
1. Pluto is very small compared to the other planets in our solar system. In fact, it is only about one-sixth the size of Earth!
2. Pluto is located in the Kuiper Belt, which is a region of the solar system that is filled with small, icy objects. It is about 3.6 billion miles away from the Sun.
3. Pluto has five known moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. Charon is the largest of the moons and is about half the size of Pluto. The other four moons are much smaller.
4. One day on Pluto is about 6.4 Earth days long. However, one year on Pluto (the time it takes to complete one orbit around the Sun) is about 248 Earth years!
5. Pluto’s surface is covered in nitrogen ice, methane ice, and other frozen materials. It is too cold on Pluto for any liquid water to exist.
6. Because Pluto is so small and has a weak gravitational pull, it has a very thin atmosphere. The atmosphere is mostly made up of nitrogen, with small amounts of carbon monoxide and methane.
7. Pluto has never been visited by a spacecraft, but in 2015 NASA’s New Horizons probe flew by Pluto and took pictures and measurements of the planet and its moons.
Even though Pluto is no longer considered a planet, it is still a fascinating member of our solar system. Scientists continue to study it and learn more about this distant world.