Pluto

Pluto is the planet that is usually the farthest from our sun in our solar system. A scientist named Clyde W. Tombaugh accidentally discovered Pluto in 1930. Clyde was working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. He did a very thorough search of the night sky and realized there was another planet in the solar system. Some people feel that Pluto is more like a comet or an asteroid than a planet.

Pluto is the only planet that has not been visited by any spacecraft. There is a planned mission scheduled to take place in 2006. Pluto is very far away from the Earth. It will take many years to get close to Pluto. Due to the irregularity of Pluto’s orbit, it is closer than Neptune for 20 years out of its 249-year cycle. This means that sometimes Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun, yet at most other times, Pluto is.

Pluto is also by far the smallest planet in our solar system—smaller than most of the moons. Pluto is named after the god of the Underworld. Little is known about Pluto’s atmosphere, but it is known to be mostly nitrogen with a little carbon monoxide and methane. Pluto can be seen with a telescope, but it is not easy. Pluto has one known satellite, which is called Charon.