Pluto

I’ve got a riddle for you… It was once a planet, but is now a dwarf planet. What planet is it? Is it: A) Pluto, B) Earth, C) Jupiter, or D) Charon? If you picked A), you are correct!

__ Pluto __ In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered a small and rocky planet that lies at the end of the solar system. This particular planet is Pluto. It is so far out that it takes light from the Sun five and one half hours to reach Pluto, in contrast to the 8 minutes it takes light to reach the Earth. Pluto is so cold that nitrogen and oxygen, which we breathe here on Earth, would turn into ice on Pluto. The planet is about 2/3 the size of our moon. Pluto was once known as the smallest, coldest, and most distant planet from the sun. Pluto used to be considered the 9th planet. Today, some scientists say that Pluto is a dwarf planet because it is too small to be a planet. Most of what we know about Pluto we have learned since the 1970s. People have made observations and learned about Pluto from space tools like the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and the Hubble Space Telescope. No space craft has yet visited Pluto; however, NASA launched a mission called //New Horizons// that will explore both Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Region. __ Fun Facts about Pluto __ · 3,670,000,000 miles from the sun · Diameter: 1,430 miles · Length of a day measured in Earth time: 6 days · Length of a year measured in Earth time: 248 years · Temperature: -387 degrees Fahrenheit

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