Pluto — Ninth Planet of the Solar System

Description:

Pluto is the farthest known planet from the sun at an astounding distance of 3,670,050,000 miles. Pluto is also the smallest planet and even smaller than seven of the moons found in the solar system. Much more is known about the other planets in the solar system, partly because Pluto is the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Also, at such a great distance from Earth, even the Hubble Space Telescope has difficulty viewing Pluto in any real detail. It has been determined that Pluto has a bright layer of methane, nitrogen and carbon monoxide. When Pluto is farthest from the sun, these gases freeze and coat the planet, but when Pluto is closest to the sun they thaw expand and create a very thin atmosphere.

Some of the detail that is visible on Pluto is the presence of polar ice caps as well as large dark spots near the equator. The surface temperature of Pluto varies between -391°F and -346°F. The " warmer" temperatures loosely correspond to the darker areas. Pluto has three known satellites, the largest of which is Charon. Charon’s diameter is over half the diameter of Pluto, making Charon the biggest moon with respect to the planet it orbits. Because of this, Pluto is often referred to as a double planet. A new mission called New Horizons was launched in 2006 and is expected to fly by Pluto in 2015 and provide much needed information about Pluto.

Notable Features:

Polar ice caps
Bright and dark regions

Data Category

Major: Astronomy
Minor: Neptune

Keywords:

Solar System, planet

Data Set Name	Pluto
Data Set Source	Voyager
Data Set Developer	William Johnston
Visualization Developer	Steve Albers, NOAA/GSD
Audio	No
Download	FTP