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Click
on a link below to be instantly transported to any of
the SpacedOut sites around Britain ...
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Location:
Pluto at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen, Scotland
Pluto at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen, Scotland
< Back to the main map | <
Back to the map of Northwest
England
Above
Work on the design and development of the site at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen that will eventually host the installation of the planet Pluto is currently in progress.
Please re-visit us soon to keep informed of progress.
In the meantime, you can discover lots about Pluto by scrolling down to the Whacky Facts and clicking on the links below.
Above
- Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1930 – it was the first planet to be discovered by an American astronomer.
- Pluto was named by a schoolgirl from Oxfordshire caller Verity Burney - the Disney character came later!
- The dwarf planet has a large satellite which was discovered on 22 June 1978 by James W Christy at the U.S. Naval Observatory. There are two known smaller moons dubbed P1 and P2.
- In 2006 August, Pluto was 'demoted' from planetary status, becoming a Dwarf Planet.
- It is likely that Pluto and Charon are examples of a class of bodies known as ‘plutinos’ or Kuiper Belt Objects, over 70 000 of which are now known to exist beyond Pluto’s orbit.
- A year on Pluto lasts 248.5 Earth-years.
Recent discoveries about Pluto
Pluto's two recently-discovered moons have been confirmed and there is also some evidence for the existance of faint rings of ice and dust surrounding Pluto.
Read the evidence for yourself and follow further links for related articles.
Learn more about the planet Pluto from Wikipedia
Lots more facts and figures about Pluto and its large moon Charon, their discoveries and evidence for the smaller moons P1 and P2.
MIssion to Pluto - New Horizons
In January 2006, the New Horizons mission was launched to Pluto. It marks the first time a spacecraft has been sent to an unexplored planet since the Voyager 2 craft visited Neptune in the late 1980s.
New Horizons' trip to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Objects will mean that all the Solar System's planets have been visited.
Discover more about the launch, the 10-year trip and the instruments on board the New Horizons probe.
Should Pluto have been demoted? Join the discussion.
Weigh up the views of other people and let them help you to decide whether Pluto should be regarded as a planet in its own right or be relegated to being a Dwarf Planet.
Join in the debate and put your own views forward.
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