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Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto
SUMMARY
| Pluto, named after the Roman god of the underworld, is usually the ninth
planet from the sun. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. Pluto is a very
small, very cold planet. Very little is known about this planet. |
Composition
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| Pluto is a ball of frozen water, methane, and rock. Pluto appears to have
polar caps as well. |
Atmosphere
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| Pluto has a thin atmosphere of methane gas. Because it is so far from the sun,
it is the coldest planet in the solar system, with temperatures as low as -364 degrees
Fahrenheit. |
Size
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| Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system. It has a diameter of 1,432
miles, less than two-thirds the size of Earth. Pluto may be one of Neptune's moons that
somehow was knocked out of orbit. Scientists are not sure. |
Orbit
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| Pluto is usually the farthest planet from the sun, but not always. Pluto has a
strange, stretched and skewed orbit. Because of this, Pluto is actually closer to the sun
than Neptune for 50 out of ever 250 years. Pluto has the longest orbit around the sun. A
year on Pluto takes 248 Earth-years, and a day is over six Earth-days long. |
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