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Pluto
Pluto
Pluto The ninth and outermost planet of the
solar system, its orbit an average 39.44 AU from the
Sun and highly eccentric, sometimes carrying it inside the orbit of
Neptune. Its distance from Earth ranges from 4293.7 × 10
6km to 7533.3 × 10
6km. Pluto is the smallest planet (much smaller than the
Moon), with a radius of 1137 km; volume 0.616 × 10
10 km
3; mass 0.0125 × 10
24 kg; mean density 2050 kg/m
3; surface gravity 0.66 (Earth = 1); visual albedo 0.3; blackbody temperature 42.7 K. The atmosphere is very thin, with a surface pressure of about 0.003 bar, and composed of methane and nitrogen. The average surface temperature is about 50 K. It has one satellite,
Charon, so large that some astronomers consider Pluto and Charon a minor double-planet system. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.
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 "WR News, Edition 3 (including Science Spin)")
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Pluto is out! Scientists kicks Pluto out of the planet family.(Cover story)
Magazine article from: WR News, Edition 3 (including Science Spin); 10/6/2006; 700+ words
; ...you know you can ignore that section on Pluto in your science books. A group of the world's astronomers recently decided that Pluto is no longer an official planet. An astronomer...Horizons is on its way to learn more about Pluto. New Horizons launched in January. It...
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Pluto booted from planetary list
Newspaper article from: Oakland Tribune; 8/25/2006; ; 700+ words
; Pluto is not a planet. It's like hearing that...but more complicated, because the planet Pluto has been a mainstay of textbooks, solar...and science fair projects for 76 years. Pluto fans greeted its demotion by an international...
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Pluto; What It Is
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 3/10/1999; ; 700+ words
; "What is Pluto anyway?" a perplexed person asked me...Astronomical Union (IAU), proposed designating Pluto as "minor planet" (or asteroid) No...designation would by implication remove Pluto from the traditional planetary Big Nine...
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Pluto Spurs Far-Out Debate; Kids have been taught for more than 70 years that nine planets revolve around our sun, and that the farthest and smallest planet is Pluto.
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 1/7/2003; 700+ words
; ...some astronomers are questioning whether Pluto should be labeled a planet after all...discovery of another, larger sphere in Pluto's vicinity has some researchers scratching...around a star. How long have we known about Pluto? Pluto was discovered in 1930 almost by...
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Pluto's demotion gains star status on Internet
Newspaper article from: Charleston Gazette; 8/26/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...4A LOS ANGELES - Not long after puny Pluto was stripped of its planethood, Janis Robinson started selling $25 "PLUTO IS A PLANET" T- shirts on the Internet...who said she "rolled her eyes" after Pluto got the boot, hopes her buyers will...
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Pluto Still a Mystery 75 Years Later
News Wire article from: AP Online; 2/13/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...s been 75 years since the discovery of Pluto, but it remains a mystery. Perhaps in...probe gets close enough for a good look. Pluto was quickly heralded as the ninth planet...Natural History. Tyson provocatively removed Pluto from his exhibit of planets five years...
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Pluto discovered 75 years ago, but just what is it?
News Wire article from: AP Worldstream; 2/14/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...s been 75 years since the discovery of Pluto, but it remains a mystery. Perhaps in...probe gets close enough for a good look. Pluto was quickly heralded as the ninth planet...Natural History. Tyson provocatively removed Pluto from his exhibit of planets five years...
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 "Post-Tribune (IN)")
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Pluto fans say time's wasting on a study
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN); 12/16/2001; ; 700+ words
; ...dead and often sheathed in frozen gases, Pluto has stalked the edge of the solar system...centuries to complete. So tiny and strange is Pluto, smaller than Earth's moon and rotating...calls for the spacecraft to plunge beyond Pluto, into the recently discovered and even...
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Pluto has more classthan most other planets
Newspaper article from: Post-Tribune (IN); 9/14/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...in the wrong way. -- E.M. Forster Pluto is no longer a planet? What nonsense...voted on a new definition of a planet, and Pluto doesn't meet it. The International Astronomical...Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are in, and Pluto is out. They will be called Classical...
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Pluto: evidence for polar caps.
Magazine article from: Science News; 9/3/1988; 700+ words
; Pluto: Evidence for polar caps In 1985, for the...than a century, the tilt of the orbit of Pluto's moon Charon reached an angle, as seen...represent "a direct detection" of polar caps on Pluto. Plutonian caps have been suggested before...
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Pluto
Encyclopedia entry from: UXL Encyclopedia of Science
Pluto Pluto, the ninth and farthest planet from the Sun, is one of the least well...It is the smallest of the major planets and has a most unusual orbit. Pluto is only 1,428 miles (2,300 kilometers) in diameter. Since the planet...
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Surfin ’ Pluto
Book article from: Contemporary Musicians
Surfin ’ Pluto Rock band For the Record … Surfin ’ Pluto ’ s sound has been favorably compared...riding a wave on a surfboard, over the solar planet Pluto. According to bass player and co-founder Gene...
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PLUTO
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to World War II
PLUTO, acronym derived from the phrase Pipe Line Under The Ocean. Experiments began in 1942 by the British HQ, Combined Operations...
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Minor Planets
Encyclopedia entry from: The Gale Encyclopedia of Science
...on remote, elliptical orbits resembling Pluto ’ s. Controversy has raged among...astronomers in recent years over whether Pluto itself should be counted as a large asteroid...Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The planets varied in size and characteristics...
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New Horizons
Book article from: A Dictionary of Astronomy
New Horizons A NASA space probe to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, launched in 2006January...assist in 2007February, and is due to reach Pluto and its moon, Charon, in 2015July. The...ultraviolet imaging spectrometer to examine Pluto's atmosphere; REX, a radio‐...
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