#CozySpaceFactofTheWeek presents: Fact #24! PLUTO!

Discovered in 1930, Pluto was originally declared as “The furthest planet from the sun” until 2006

A Plutonian year takes a total of 248 earth years, and it is the smallest “planet” in the solar system!

See more below!

1) Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and declared to be the ninth planet from the Sun. After 1992, its status as a planet was questioned following the discovery of several objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt, one of which being “Eris”.

2) With a radius of 715 miles (1,151 kilometers), Pluto is about 1/6 the width of Earth. If Earth was the size of a nickel, Pluto would be about as big as a popcorn kernel.

3) Compared to earth, a single day on this dwarf planet takes approximately 153 hours, compared to earth’s 24.

4) It’s about 2/3 the size of Earth's moon and probably has a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of water ice.

Interesting ices like methane and nitrogen frost coat its surface. Due to its lower density, Pluto's mass is about one-sixth that of Earth's moon.

5) Pluto has a thin, tenuous atmosphere that expands when it comes closer to the sun and collapses as it moves farther away, similar to a comet. The main constituent is molecular nitrogen, though molecules of methane and carbon monoxide have also been detected.

6) On Pluto, gravity is about 0.066 that of earth. If you jumped 10 feet on earth, you would jump a staggering 150 on Pluto!

7) In addition, it is also believed that Pluto May have a frozen ocean underneath, however there isn’t much evidence of this.

8) Pluto has 5 moons:

Charon, Nix, Styx, Hydra & Kerebos.

The largest, Charon, is half the size of Pluto. In comparison, as they rotate around each-other, they are often referred to as a double planet system.

Charon is around 376 miles, compared to Pluto’s 750.

9) In term’s of Pluto’s surface, it can be observed to be considerably rough, covered in a documented 1000 craters so far. One of it’s lesser know but more impressive feature’s are its enormous towers of ice, which are HUNDREDS of feet in height.

10) Large ice formations like those on Pluto can also be seen in Chile, albeit just a few feet. The image above you was taken in said place. Just imagine that, except the height of your average Marriot hotel.

11) In regards to it’s change in status in 2006, after the discovery of Eris in 2005, the astronomy community began to totally rethink just how they saw planets, and began to organize an official designation for them.

12) It was determined that Pluto, while a planet, was technically a “Dwarf” planet. Therefor, it was outted by the community as being an official member of the solar system.

However, Pluto is infact the largest object in The Kuiper Belt Region.

13) Through human history, Only one spacecraft has visited the Kuiper Belt. NASA's New Horizons flew past Pluto in July 2015, sending back the first clear, close-up images of the tiny world and is now on its way out of the solar system, flying by another object known as “MU69”

14) Pluto itself is an important body in that it allows us a good look into how “Double Planet Systems” work. There is also intense study into Pluto’s comet like properties in terms of atmosphere, as it dissipates as it draws distance with the sun, and thickens when closer.

15) Varying atmospheres also give scientists valuable information in terms of observing the buildup as atmosphere aswell. There are some pretty big implications with such a small object in space.

To conclude, I hope you folks enjoyed this thread on our forsaken “9th Planet”, Pluto.

NOTICE: I’ll be finally posting the full thread on my Lesser Known Facts of WW2 thread. Stay tuned for that aswell!

Stay cozy!