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| P-K Bits |
- Pluto orbits the Sun once every 248 years.
- A person on Pluto would weigh 1/15 what they weigh on Earth - for comparison, the astronauts on the Moon had 1/6 of their Earth weight.
- Pluto is named after the Greek god of the underworld.
- The symbol for Pluto ("PL") is tribute to Percival Lowell, who started the search for the ninth planet in the early 1900s.
- Charon is 20 times closer to Pluto than our moon is to Earth.
- Pluto was discovered in 1930 by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.
- American astronomers James Christy and Robert Harrington discovered Charon in 1978.
- Charon is named after the mythological boatman who ferried souls across the river Styx to Pluto for judgment.
- At 1,470 miles (about 2,370 kilometers) across, Pluto could fit between Washington, D.C. and Denver, Colorado.
- Charon is half of Pluto's diameter - making it the largest satellite relative to the planet it orbits.
- Pluto is an ice dwarf - a "new" type of planet common to the deep outer solar system.
- Pluto-Charon is the solar system's only known binary planet.
- Pluto's surface is among the most contrasty in the solar system.
- Pluto has weather, winds, hazes, chemistry and an ionosphere.
- Pluto's estimated surface temperature falls between --378 to --396 degrees F (-228 to -238 C).
- Pluto is one of only two planets that rotates on its side - Uranus is the other.
- Pluto's surface has nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide ices on it.
- A radio signal moving at the speed of light takes about 4 hours to reach Pluto from Earth.
- The Kuiper Belt is a collection of icy, rocky objects residing beyond Neptune's orbit.
- The first Kuiper Belt Object was discovered in 1992.
- Some Kuiper Belt Objects (like Pluto) have an average reddish color, while others are gray.
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