Pluto

199 languages
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 View source
 View history
Tools



















Appearance
hide
Text

Small

Standard
Large
Width

Standard
Wide
Color (beta)

Automatic
 Light
Dark

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the dwarf planet. For the deity, see Pluto (mythology). For other
uses, see Pluto (disambiguation).

Pluto

Pluto in true color as imaged by the New Horizons spacecraft

in July 2015.[a]

Discovery

Discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh

Discovery site Lowell Observatory

Discovery date February 18, 1930

Designations

MPC designation (134340) Pluto

 /ˈpluːtoʊ/ ⓘ
Pronunciation

Named after Pluto

Minor planet category Dwarf planet
Trans-Neptunian object
Kuiper belt object
Plutino

Adjectives Plutonian /pluːˈtoʊniən/[1]

Symbol or

Orbital characteristics[2][b]

Epoch J2000

Earliest precovery date August 20, 1909

Aphelion 49.305 AU
(7.37593 billion km)
February 2114

Perihelion 29.658 AU
(4.43682 billion km)[3]
(September 5, 1989)[4]
Semi-major axis 39.482 AU
(5.90638 billion km)

Eccentricity 0.2488
Orbital period (sidereal) 247.94 years[3]
90,560 d[3]
Orbital period (synodic) 366.73 days[3]
Average orbital speed 4.743 km/s[3]
Mean anomaly 14.53 deg

Inclination 17.16°
(11.88° to Sun's equator)
Longitude of 110.299°
ascending node
Argument of perihelion 113.834°
Known satellites 5

Physical characteristics

Dimensions 2,376.6±1.6 km (observations

consistent with a sphere,
predicted deviations too small
to be observed)[5]
Mean radius 1,188.3±0.8 km[6][5]
0.1868 Earths

Flattening <1%[7]
Surface area 1.774443×107 km2[c]
0.035 Earths

Volume (7.057±0.004)×109 km3[d]

0.00651 Earths

Mass (1.3025±0.0006)×1022 kg[8]

0.00218 Earths
0.177 Moons
Mean density 1.853±0.004 g/cm3[8]
Equatorial surface gravity 0.620 m/s2 (0.0632 g0)[e]

Equatorial escape velocity 1.212 km/s[f]

Synodic rotation period −6.38680 d

−6 d, 9 h, 17 m, 00 s
[9]

Sidereal rotation period −6.387230 d

−6 d, 9 h, 17 m, 36 s
Equatorial 13.11 m/s[citation needed]
rotation velocity
Axial tilt 119.51° (to orbit)[3]
North pole right ascension 132.993°[10]

North pole declination −6.163°[10]

Geometric albedo 0.52 geometric (locally 0.08–
1.0)[3]
 0.72 ± 0.07 Bond[3]
Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin 33 K 44 K (−229 °C) 55 K
Apparent magnitude 13.65[3] to 16.3[11]
(mean is 15.1)[3]
Absolute magnitude (H) −0.44[12]
Angular diameter 0.06″ to 0.11″[3][g]

Atmosphere
Surface pressure 1.0 Pa (2015)[7][13] (9.9×10−6 atm)

Composition by volume Nitrogen, methane, carbon

monoxide[14]

Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a
ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-
massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian
object by volume by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt
objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner
planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of the Moon and one-third its volume.
Originally considered a planet, its classification was changed when astronomers
adopted a new definition of planet.

Pluto has a moderately eccentric and inclined orbit, ranging from 30 to 49 astronomical
units (4.5 to 7.3 billion kilometres; 2.8 to 4.6 billion miles) from the Sun. Light from the
Sun takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its orbital distance of 39.5 AU (5.91 billion km;
3.67 billion mi). Pluto's eccentric orbit periodically brings it closer to the Sun
than Neptune, but a stable orbital resonance prevents them from colliding.

Pluto has five known moons: Charon, the largest, whose diameter is just over half that
of Pluto; Styx; Nix; Kerberos; and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered
a binary system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body,
and they are tidally locked. New Horizons was the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its
moons, making a flyby on July 14, 2015, and taking detailed measurements and
observations.

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, making it the first known object
in the Kuiper belt. It was immediately hailed as the ninth planet. However,[15]: 27 its
planetary status was questioned when it was found to be much smaller than expected.
These doubts increased following the discovery of additional objects in the Kuiper belt
starting in the 1990s, particularly the more massive scattered disk object Eris in 2005. In
2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally redefined the term planet to
exclude dwarf planets such as Pluto. Many planetary astronomers, however, continue to
consider Pluto and other dwarf planets to be planets.
History
Discovery
Further information: Planets beyond Neptune

Discovery photographs of Pluto

In the 1840s, Urbain Le Verrier used Newtonian mechanics to predict the position of the
then-undiscovered planet Neptune after analyzing perturbations in the orbit of Uranus.
Subsequent observations of Neptune in the late 19th century led astronomers to
speculate that Uranus's orbit was being disturbed by another planet besides Neptune. [16]

In 1906, Percival Lowell—a wealthy Bostonian who had founded Lowell

Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894—started an extensive project in search of a
possible ninth planet, which he termed "Planet X".[17] By 1909, Lowell and William H.
Pickering had suggested several possible celestial coordinates for such a planet.
[18]
Lowell and his observatory conducted his search, using mathematical calculations
made by Elizabeth Williams, until his death in 1916, but to no avail. Unknown to Lowell,
his surveys had captured two faint images of Pluto on March 19 and April 7, 1915, but
they were not recognized for what they were.[18][19] There are fourteen other
known precovery observations, with the earliest made by the Yerkes Observatory on
August 20, 1909.[20]

Clyde Tombaugh, in Kansas

Percival's widow, Constance Lowell, entered into a ten-year legal battle with the Lowell
Observatory over her husband's legacy, and the search for Planet X did not resume
until 1929.[21] Vesto Melvin Slipher, the observatory director, gave the job of locating
Planet X to 23-year-old Clyde Tombaugh, who had just arrived at the observatory after
Slipher had been impressed by a sample of his astronomical drawings.[21]

Tombaugh's task was to systematically image the night sky in pairs of photographs,
then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. Using
a blink comparator, he rapidly shifted back and forth between views of each of the
plates to create the illusion of movement of any objects that had changed position or
appearance between photographs. On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of
searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates
taken on January 23 and 29. A lesser-quality photograph taken on January 21 helped
confirm the movement.[22] After the observatory obtained further confirmatory
photographs, news of the discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College
Observatory on March 13, 1930.[18]

One Plutonian year corresponds to 247.94 Earth years;[3] thus, in 2178, Pluto will
complete its first orbit since its discovery.

Name and symbol

The name Pluto came from the Roman god of the underworld; and it is also
an epithet for Hades (the Greek equivalent of Pluto).

Upon the announcement of the discovery, Lowell Observatory received over a thousand
suggestions for names.[23] Three names topped the list: Minerva, Pluto and Cronus.
'Minerva' was the Lowell staff's first choice[24] but was rejected because it had already
been used for an asteroid; Cronus was disfavored because it was promoted by an
unpopular and egocentric astronomer, Thomas Jefferson Jackson See. A vote was then
taken and 'Pluto' was the unanimous choice. To make sure the name stuck, and that the
planet would not suffer changes in its name as Uranus had, Lowell Observatory
proposed the name to the American Astronomical Society and the Royal Astronomical
Society; both approved it unanimously.[15]: 136 [25] The name was published on May 1, 1930.
[26][27]

The name Pluto had received some 150 nominations among the letters and telegrams
sent to Lowell. The first[h] had been from Venetia Burney (1918–2009), an eleven-year-
old schoolgirl in Oxford, England, who was interested in classical mythology.[15][26] She
had suggested it to her grandfather Falconer Madan when he read the news of Pluto's
discovery to his family over breakfast; Madan passed the suggestion to astronomy
professor Herbert Hall Turner, who cabled it to colleagues at Lowell on March 16, three
days after the announcement.[24][26]

The name 'Pluto' was mythologically appropriate: the god Pluto was one of six surviving
children of Saturn, and the others had already all been chosen as names of major or
minor planets (his brothers Jupiter and Neptune, and his
sisters Ceres, Juno and Vesta). Both the god and the planet inhabited "gloomy" regions,
and the god was able to make himself invisible, as the planet had been for so long.
[29]
The choice was further helped by the fact that the first two letters of Pluto were the
initials of Percival Lowell; indeed, 'Percival' had been one of the more popular
suggestions for a name for the new planet.[24][30]

Symbol
Once named, Pluto's planetary symbol ⟨ ⟩ was then created as a monogram of the
letters "PL".[31] This symbol is rarely used in astronomy anymore,[i] though it is still
common in astrology. However, the most common astrological symbol for Pluto,

invisibility cap) over Pluto's bident ⟨ ⟩, which dates to the early 1930s.[35][j]
occasionally used in astronomy as well, is an orb (possibly representing Pluto's

The name 'Pluto' was soon embraced by wider culture. In 1930, Walt Disney was
apparently inspired by it when he introduced for Mickey Mouse a canine companion
named Pluto, although Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen could not confirm why the
name was given.[39] In 1941, Glenn T. Seaborg named the newly
created element plutonium after Pluto, in keeping with the tradition of naming elements
after newly discovered planets, following uranium, which was named after Uranus,
and neptunium, which was named after Neptune.[40]