DISCOVERING PLUTO

HISTORY OF PLUTO
• Pluto was discovered in the year 1930 by
astronomer Tombaugh
• It is named after the Roman god of underworld
in Greek mythology
• Pluto was considered as ninth planet initially
• In 2006, some more objects were found near
Pluto, so it was then reduced to a dwarf planet
• Before it was officially called as Pluto ,it was
named as “Planet X”
 PHYSICAL CHARATERISTICS
• Size : It has a diameter of 2,372 km
• Gravity : Approx.16 times weaker than
Earth
• Surface : Icy and rocky
• Temperature : -300 *F to -400 *F
 INTERESTING FACTS
• Pluto completes a round around the sun in
248 Earth years
• It is the largest dwarf planet
• Pluto is also called “Plutoid”
 ITS MOONS
Pluto has 5 moons –
• Charon
• Nix
• Hydra
• Kerberos
• Styx
 CHARON
• It is the largest moon of Pluto
• Charon is almost half size of Pluto
• Charon and Pluto are just 19,640 km apart
 NIX AND HYDRA
• In 2005 using Hubble Space Telescope
discovered 2 tiny other tiny moons – Nix
and Hydra
• These are 2 to 3 times apart from Pluto than
Charon
• They are thought to be just 50 to 100 km
wide
 KERBEROS AND STYX
• Hubble discovered a fourth moon –
Kerberos, in 2011
• It is estimated to 13 to 34 km in diameter
• The fifth moon – Styx was discovered in
2012
 RESEARCH & EXPLORATION
• NASA’s New Horizons mission will be the
first probe to study Pluto, its moons and
other worlds within the Kuiper belt .
• It was launched in January 2006, making it’s
closest approach to Pluto in 2015 and
carries some of the ashes of Pluto’s
discoverer – Clyde Tombaugh