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Astronomical objects discovered in 1930Discoveries by Clyde TombaughDiscoveries by the Lowell ObservatoryDwarf planets

Pluto

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A colorful view of the planet Pluto showing its icy 'heart' region, as captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

A Special Little World

Pluto is a tiny world that orbits far away from the Sun. It lives in a place called the Kuiper belt, which is filled with icy objects beyond the planet Neptune. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by a man named Clyde W. Tombaugh. For many years, Pluto was called the ninth planet, but scientists later decided it was special enough to be called a dwarf planet.

Pluto is much smaller than the planets closer to the Sun. It is about one-sixth the size of Earth’s Moon and is made mostly of ice and rock. Even though Pluto’s path around the Sun sometimes brings it closer to us than Neptune, the two never bump into each other because of how their paths are arranged.

Pluto has five known moons. The biggest one is named Charon. In 2015, a spacecraft called New Horizons visited Pluto. It was the very first spacecraft to see Pluto up close. It sent back wonderful pictures and facts that helped us learn more about this cold, distant world.

A Name from Myths

The name Pluto was chosen to honor the Roman god of the underworld. Many people suggested names, but “Pluto” was picked because it started with the same letters as the astronomer Percival Lowell, who had searched for Pluto before it was found. An eleven-year-old girl in England named Venetia Burney was one of the first to suggest the name Pluto.

A Special Symbol

After Pluto was named, a special symbol was made using the letters “PL”. The name Pluto also inspired other fun things, like a cartoon character and an element called plutonium.

Pluto reminds us that space is full of amazing and surprising places waiting to be discovered.

Images

A colorful view of Pluto's surface showing diverse geological features, captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
Historical astronomy image showing the star field where Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, with his homemade telescope.
A scientific graph showing how the positions of Neptune and Pluto change relative to each other over time.
A colorful view of Pluto’s surface showing its unique 'heart' shape and icy patterns, captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
A detailed map showing the craters and surface features of Pluto and its moon Charon, helping us learn about these distant worlds in our solar system.
A colorful map showing different types of terrain on the surface of Pluto, made from data collected by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
Scientists discovered water ice on Pluto! This image shows areas with exposed water ice highlighted in blue, helping us learn about this distant world.
Diagram showing the internal structure of Pluto, including its water ice crust, liquid ocean, and silicate core.
A comparison showing the sizes of Pluto, Earth, and the Moon to help visualize how big each object is in space.
A colorful view of Pluto showing its blue atmospheric haze layers and distant surface features, taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
Animation showing how Pluto moves around the Sun over time.
Animation showing the orbit of Pluto around the Sun, illustrating its long orbital period of 248 Earth years.
An animation showing the rotation of the planet Pluto, captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Pluto, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.