How old is pluto for kids

The name was of the Roman god of the underworld. She thought it was a good name for a dark and cold world. She suggested it when she was talking with her grandfather Falconer Madan. He was a former librarian at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library. Madan passed the name to Professor Herbert Hall Turner. Turner told this proposed name to the astronomers in the United States. The object was officially named on March 24, Each member of the Lowell Observatory was allowed to vote on a short-list of three names.

The names were Minerva which was already the name for an asteroid , Cronus , and Pluto. Pluto received all votes. The name was announced on May 1, Upon the announcement, Madan gave Venetia five pounds as a reward. The name became popular in culture. The Disney character, Pluto , was introduced in the same year. He was named in the object's honor. In , Glenn T. Seaborg named the newly created element plutonium after Pluto.

This was to keep the tradition of naming new elements after newly discovered planets. For example, uranium had been named after Uranus , and neptunium after Neptune. After a debate, in August an IAU resolution created an official definition for the term "planet".

According to this resolution, there are three conditions for an object in the Solar System to be considered a planet:. Pluto fails to meet the third condition. Its mass is much less than the combined mass of the other objects in its orbit: 0.

Earth , by contrast, is 1. The IAU also decided that bodies which, like Pluto, meet criteria 1 and 2 but do not meet criterion 3, would be called dwarf planets. Pluto and its largest moon, Charon , are sometimes called a "binary system".

This is because the barycentre of their orbits does not lie within them. The IAU has yet to formalise a definition for binary dwarf planets, and until it passes such a ruling, they classify Charon as a moon of Pluto. Pluto has four known smaller moons, Nix and Hydra , discovered in , Kerberos , discovered in , and Styx , discovered in Size comparisons: Earth , the Moon , and Pluto.

Pluto is a dwarf planet that lies in the Kuiper Belt. It's an area full of icy bodies and other dwarf planets at the edge of our solar system. Because Pluto is the biggest known object in this region, some call it "King of the Kuiper Belt. One thing is certain. Pluto and its neighborhood are very peculiar. If scientists could unravel some of their mysteries, we would know more about how our solar system formed. In the picture above, the arrows show the direction the planets and Pluto rotate.

Notice Pluto's spin goes the opposite direction of all the others except Venus and Uranus. Looking for fun activities to teach kids about the planet Pluto? View the Worksheets. It is the first Kuiper Belt object to be discovered and it is the largest known plutoid. Pluto was discovered in by Clyde Tombaugh. Pluto was classified as a planet for 75 years. It held the title of the ninth planet of the Solar System. Pluto was declassified from the status of planet to that of a dwarf planet in after another dwarf planet, Eris was discovered.

The controversial classification of Pluto forced the scientific community to come up with the definition of a planet. Pluto is primarily made out of ice and rock. Charon is the biggest known moon of any dwarf planet. Pluto has mountains, valleys, and craters.

Pluto is one third made out of water. Its atmosphere is very similar to that of a comet since it collapses as it moves away from the Sun, and expands as it gets close.

Structure and Surface Pluto is made out of primarily from nitrogen ice and rock. Some notable regions are: Tombaugh Regio, also known as the Heart —a large bright area.

Chtulhu Macula, also known as the Whale — a large dark area. Brass knuckles — a series of dark areas located near the equator. Time on Pluto Pluto spins very slowly, and as such, one day there is equal to hours. Fun Facts Pluto was closer to the Sun than Neptune from to Tradition dictates that when a new planet is named, an element would be named after a variation of the planet's name.

In recent years it has been fairly close to the Sun and enjoying a brief summer. Surface ices have vaporised, producing a thin atmosphere. However, it is now retreating into the cold depths of the Solar System and this atmosphere will soon freeze again.

Its largest moon, Charon, takes the same length of time to orbit Pluto.