The document provides information about the dwarf planet Pluto, including details about its eccentric orbit around the sun, composition and surface features, exploration by the New Horizons spacecraft, and its status as the largest object in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto has an eccentric elliptical orbit that takes it from 30 to 39 astronomical units from the sun over 248 Earth years, and it has a surface temperature ranging from -396°F to -378°F with an atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen. The New Horizons mission launched in 2006 to conduct the first flyby and imaging of Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

1. To Pluto and beyond
Mission Badge Below
Conor Finch, Travis Tricker, Sam Vanemrick.
Pluto Brochure
(The dwarf planet!!)

2. Introduction
 Today I'm going to take you on a adventure! To the depths of
our solar system……… to the dwarf planet Pluto. Which is
the most recent discovered planet in our solar system.

3. Orbit
 Pluto is the farthest away from the sun which means it will
take the longest to orbit the sun. Pluto takes 248 years to
completely orbit the sun once. In Pluto's orbit around the sun
it can become 30 Au away from it. Au means the distance
between the sun and the earth. Its farthest point is 39 Au.
Pluto has a very inclined orbit. Its orbit is 17 degrees which
means it orbits above the other planets and sometimes below
them. When the planet orbits above the other planets its is
called the plane of the ecliptic.

4. Eccentricity of Pluto
 An Eccentricity is a term used to describe how
round or how stretched out an ellipse is.
Mathematicians and astronomers use the term
ellipse to describe the orbit routes of planets.
Mathematicians and astronomers have
discovered that planets do not orbit on a perfect
circle. They found out they orbit on stretched out
circles or ovals.
 Pluto's Eccentricity of Pluto is 0.25
 This picture below shows how Pluto orbits on an
oval shaped ellipse
“This animation shows elliptical orbits
with different eccentricities. It also
shows how the Sun is at the focus of an
ellipse, and some of the math behind
elliptical orbits.”
http://www.windows2universe.org

5. Rotation of Pluto
 Every planet in our solar system revolves around the sun in
an eastward direction.
 Instead of Pluto rotating on its axis it rotates the opposite
way. Same as Venus and Uranus.
 Pluto has a tilt of about 120 degrees.
 With a tilt of 120 degrees means that one side of the planet
will always be dark and one side will always be Light.
 Pluto's rotation period is equaled to 6.39 earth days.

6. Pluto Fun Facts
1. “Pluto is only about half the width of the United States”
2. “If you lived on Pluto, you'd have to live 248 Earth years
to celebrate your first birthday in Pluto years.”
3. „If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh
only 7 pounds on Pluto!”
4. “Almost all the planets travel around the Sun in nearly
perfect circles. But Pluto does not. It takes an oval-
shaped path with the Sun nowhere near its center.”
5. “Pluto is the largest of the "ice dwarfs" in our solar
system.”
6. Pluto is not a planet anymore because it isnt the biggest
object in the Kuiper Belt.
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov

7. Surface data(gravity, temperature, weather,
composition of the planet)
 Pluto is probably our solar systems coldest planet because it is the
farthest away from the sun.

 Pluto‟s atmosphere is made up of about 90% Nitrogen and 10% of
other molecules like methane.
 The temperature range from -396°F to -378°F (-238°C to -228°C)
 The average temperature is -393°F (-236°C)
 Scientists and astronomers do not know what Pluto is composed of.
They think it is made of 70% and about 30% water. They determine
this by density calculations.
 Density of Pluto: 2,000kg/m3
 The Three layers of Pluto are Frozen Nitrogen , Water ice, Rock
 Pluto weights 1.31×1022 kg
 Pluto is 0.6 the size of earth and its diameter is 2,306 km, or
roughly 66% that of the Moon.
 Pluto gravity is %7 of earths gravity. So if you weighted 100 pounds
on earth you would weight 7 pounds on Pluto.

8. Human Exploration
A mission to Pluto was launched in January, 19
of 2006. This mission is called new horizons.
This is a picture from the mission new horizon it
was one of the first images. This picture below
was taken from 4.2 billion miles way.
The new horizon mission will take pictures of the
surface of Pluto and Charon.
“New Horizons will use a remote sensing
package that includes imaging instruments and a
radio science investigation tool, as well as
spectroscopic and other experiments, to
characterise the global geology and morphology
of Pluto and its moon Charon”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto

9. The Discovery of Pluto
 In 1840 Urbain Le Verrier predicted were the undiscovered planet Neptune after
looking at the disturbance in motion of Uranus‟s orbit. They figured out that not only
Neptune was affecting the orbit of Uranus.
 A Wealthy Bostonian named Percival Lowell who had created the “Lowell
Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1894” Started to fund an expensive project to
maybe discover a ninth planet.
 Before Pluto was discovered it was named planet X.
 They conducted the research until 1916 when Percival Lowell died. They did not
know on March,19,1915 they had seen faint images of Pluto.
 There are 16 pre discovery of Pluto and the oldest one dates back to August,
20,1909.
Sighting of Pluto on January 23 and 29 of 1930

10. Pluto's distance from the sun
 Pluto is the farthest planet away from the
sun.
 Closest Distance: 4.44 billion KM
 Farthest Distance: 7.38 billion KM
 Regular Distance: 5.9 billion KM
 This shows the order of the planets and
shows how Pluto is the farthest away.


11. Moons and asteroid belt.
 Pluto has four moons. Charon was discovered in 1978 on
June 22. Nix and hydra were found in 2005. But the latest
moon of Pluto found Is called S/2011 P 1 it was found on June
28, 2011 and It was verified as a moon on July,20,2011.
 Biggest moon to smallest moon
 1:Charon
 2: Hydra
 3: Nix
 4: S/2011 P1
 Charon has half the diameter as Pluto and is one eighth the
mass.
 Charon and Pluto are tidal locked which means one face of
Pluto and one face of Charon will always be facing each
other.
 The Kuiper bell is home to Pluto and Haumea, and
Makemake.
 Pluto is the biggest member of The Kuiper belt.
 The Kuiper belt was found in 1992.

12. Sources
 http://www.skepticalscience.com
 http://cseligman.com
 http://spaceplace.nasa.gov
 http://www.windows2universe.org
 http://www.universetoday.com
 http://en.wikipedia.org