11. pluto

Pluto is a dwarf planet that is located in the Kuiper belt.

Pluto was discovered on February 18th,1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in America.

The story of how Pluto was discovered is amazing. Nobody could see Pluto with a telescope, but a scientist called Percival Lowell thought that there may be a planet near Uranus and Neptune because these planets had wobbles in their orbits. Wobbles in the orbit of a planet can happen when they pass close to another planet. Dr Clyde Tombaugh used a special technique to hunt for and discover Pluto. People were very excited that a ninth planet had been discovered!

Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl, Venetia Burnley, from England. Venetia said to her grandfather that the astronomers should name the new planet after Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. Imagine her surprise when the astronomers selected this name for the new planet!

Pluto was called a planet for 75 years. But in 2006, the International Astronomical Union changed it to a dwarf planet! 154 Pluto’s could fit inside the Earth, but that’s nothing compared to the 200 million Pluto’s that could fit inside the sun!!!!!!!!!

Pluto is 4.8 billion kilometres from Earth. If you wanted to travel to Pluto in a spaceship it would take nine and a half years. If you came straight home, you would be in space for 19 years. That’s a long time to see one dwarf planet. I would recommend a trip to Mars instead or inventing a ship that can travel at light speed, like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. It takes light less than four and a half hours to go from Earth to Pluto. You could be home in time for dinner.