Saturday, October 18, 2014
Discovering Pluto
Pluto was discovered by a guy named Clyde M. Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff Arizona. Astronomers have been predicting that there would be a 9th planet in the Solar System which they would call Planet X for a long time. After a year of observations Clyde Tombaugh finally discovered an object in the in the right orbit, and said he discovered Planet X. Since the Lowell Observatory discovered Planet X they took the hands of naming Planet X and they laid there hands on the name Pluto that was suggested by a 11 year old school girl in Oxford, England. (but they didn't name after the Mickey Mouse Disney character.) Once they discovered Pluto there was now 9 planets in the Solar System just like they were predicting for a long time. Astronomers weren't sure about Pluto's mass until they discovered Pluto's largest Moon, Charon, in 1978. By knowing Charon's mass (0.0021earthes), they could accurately gauge its size. The most accurate measurement recently gives the size of Pluto at 2,400km (1,500miles) across. Pluto was so small people called it the Dwarf Planet .
Pluto is tiny but they considered it was larger than anything else past the orbit of Neptune. For more about Pluto go HERE where I found my information.
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So is Pluto still considered the 9th planet??
ReplyDeleteI will have to research that but I am pretty sure it would still be considered the 9th planet.
ReplyDeleteI have found out that Pluto is not still considered the 9th planet because since it is gone nobody really remembers Pluto.
ReplyDeletePluto is gone? Are you sure about that?? I don't think it is gone or that it is just because nobody really remembers it. Keep researching and see what you find out!
ReplyDeleteI have been researching and I have found out that there was other planets that that surrounded Pluto such as Eris (ext.) and because it was surrounded by all of the planets most people forget about Pluto and the other planets.
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