Dwarf Planet Pluto

Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, meaning they always show the same face to each other due to gravitational forces. This happens when one body’s rotation period matches its orbital period around another body.

Pluto's three moons names are Charon, Nix, and Hydra.

Most of the eight planets in our solar system have at least one natural satellite or moon, some up to 60 or more. Mercury and Venus are the two exceptions, they have no known natural satellites.

Because it was too small and it seemed to be following some other orbit rather than our sun. Its orbit was off from ours by too much time. It was faster than it should have been. ______________ I considered editing the question, but left it because it might resonate with some popular misconceptions. Pluto is still out there, and our struggles to categorize it have not diminished it one bit. It remains part of our solar system and will remain so as long as the solar system exists, barring some unforeseen disaster. It will continue to be a fascinating and inspiring object and one worth studying. Neither its size nor the speed of Pluto's orbit are factors in Pluto's categorization, although many point out that the region that far out in the solar system seems not to be the right place for a planet so small. That part of the solar system is where the gas giants live, and the smaller more rocky planets live near us. Pluto is simply no longer considered a major planet. It is a minor planet. In order for a body to be considered a planet it must orbit a sun or the remnant of a sun. Pluto does that. It must be large enough so that by force of its own gravity it has formed itself into a sphere-like shape. [Planets are not perfect spheres.] Pluto has done that too. So far so good. It must also have cleared its neighborhood of debris. No planet has done this completely; there are chunks of rock and tons of dust and ice floating around. But the major planets have no objects in the vicinity of their orbits large enough to challenge their primacy in their orbits. Here is where Pluto runs into trouble. Pluto's orbit is roughly 248 earth years. During that time Pluto spends roughly 12-14 years in the part of its orbit that takes it closer to the sun than Neptune, the outermost major planet. The rest of the time it is in what is called the Kuiper Belt, a region beyond Neptune that is filled with icy chunks, some of them rivaling the size of Pluto. Probably many of the comets that we sometimes observe spend most of their time there. In fact, Pluto may be very much like a large comet, and might act like one if it got close enough to the sun. It is all the time that Pluto spends among the many other objects in the Kuiper Belt that disqualifies it from being a major planet. Often, Pluto is referred to as a Kuiper Object. So Pluto fans, do not despair. Pluto is in reality eveything it ever was. We just don't include it on the list of major planets any more.

Mercury is closer to the Sun than the Earth.

As it's the furthest planet out, Neptune takes the longest to orbit our sun, taking some 165 years to do so.

Probably not. While it's not known for certain, if there is any trace of hydrogen on Pluto, it would be in solid form. Pluto probably consists of a mixture of 70 percent rock and 30 percent water ice. Internal structure: The dwarf planet probably has a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of water ice, with more exotic ices such as methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen ice coating the surface.

Uranus and Neptune, although Pluto's orbit sometimes goes inside Neptune's orbit.

The average distance between Pluto and its moon Nix is about 19,600 kilometers. Nix orbits around Pluto at a distance of roughly 30,000 kilometers.

The number of dwarf planets changes constantly because astronomers are finding and classifying new dwarf planets. As of June 2014, there are 10 known dwarf planets plus many others that may be classified as dwarf planets.

Travelling at 600 mph, a vehicle would make the 3.58 billion mile trip in around 680 years, based on plutos average distance from the sun and assuming the vehicle left earth when the earth was at it's closest point to Pluto in it's orbit.

Pluto was initially referred to as Planet X during its discovery due to being the ninth planet in the solar system and the unknown nature of the celestial body at the time. It was not until later that Pluto was formally named by an 11-year-old girl named Venetia Burney, who suggested the name after the Roman god of the underworld.

Solid objects that can orbit planets are called moons. Moons are natural satellites that orbit around planets in a similar way that planets orbit around stars. Moons can range in size from small rocky bodies to larger worlds with their own atmospheres.

Generally it's the size. If an asteroid were to be big enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium (approximately spherical in shape), then it may be classed as a dwarf planet, such as Ceres. Asteroids are generally too small to active this shape under their gravity so are not classed as dwarf planets.

They aren't usually very significant. The Kuiper belt is a region of space beyond the orbit of Neptune; we have discovered several small bodies, and there are doubtless millions more still smaller. Knowing virtually nothing about them, we can only speculate on what kind of objects they are, but they probably represent primordial material that was out at the fringes of the planetary nebula from which our solar system formed, 4.5+ billion years ago.

These might become terrifyingly significant in some later age, if something were to perturb one or more of these objects into orbits that would bring them into the inner solar system. But as of yet, they appear to pose no hazard.

Before classifying a heavenly body as a dwarf planet, considerations include its size (not massive enough to clear its orbit of other debris), its shape (does not have a spherical shape), and its orbit (must orbit the sun and not be a satellite of another planet). These criteria are outlined by the International Astronomical Union for defining dwarf planets.

Polar bears are adapted for cold temperatures and rely on sea ice to hunt for seals. In warm conditions, they may struggle to find food and can overheat due to their thick fur. With diminishing ice due to climate change, polar bears face challenges in their natural habitat.

No. Pluto is bigger than Ceres. With a diameter of about 2302km, Pluto is quite a lot bigger than Ceres. Ceres has a diameter of about 975km.

Mercury:0

Venus:0

Earth:1-Luna

Mars:2-Phobos, Deimos

Jupiter:63-Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto (Galilean moons);

Amalthea, Himalia, Elara, Pasiphae, Sinope, Lysithea, Carme, Ananke, Leda;

Metis, Adrastea (shepherd moons);

Thebe, Callirrhoe, Themisto, Kalyke, Iocaste, Erinome, Harpalyke, Isonoe, Praxidike, Megaclite, Taygete, Chaldene, Autonoe, Thyone, Hermippe, Eurydome, Sponde, Pasithee, Euanthe, Kale, Orthosie, Euporie, Aitne

(+ 25 other moons)

Saturn:61-Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Hyperion;

Prometheus, Pandora (shepherd moons);

Phoebe, Janus, Epimetheus, Helene, Telesto, Calypso, Atlas, Pan, Ymir, Paaliaq, Siarnaq, Tarvos, Kiviuq, Ijiraq, Thrymr, Skathi, Mundilfari, Erriapo, Albiorox, Suttung

(+ 30 other moons)

Uranus:27-Cordelia, Ophelia, (shepherd moons);

Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo

(+ 6 unnamed moons)

Neptune:13-Triton, Nereid, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Larissa, Proteus, Galatea (shepherd moon)

(+ 5 unnamed moons)

Pluto:3-Charon, Hydra, Nix

About ten years. The New Horizons space probe was launched towards Pluto in 2006 and is expected to get there in 2015. It experienced the fasted launch speed from earth ever, though is now still only about halfway to Pluto.

It's not in orbit around Neptune, it's in direct orbit around the sun, so is not a satellite or moon of Neptune. Although it their gravitational pulls effect each other, Pluto does not go round and round Neptune.

One light year is around 10 trillion km or 6 trillion miles. Nine lightyears would be 90 trillion km or 54 trillion miles. You would generally just say nine lightyears though.

450,000 pennies would weigh 2,500 pounds. This is because a single penny weighs 2.5 grams, and there are 454 grams in a pound. So, 450,000 pennies x 2.5 grams = 1,125,000 grams. 1,125,000 grams / 454 grams per pound = 2,479.65 pounds, which is rounded up to 2,500 pounds.

The other type of planet is terrestrial, which is made up of mostly rock and metal. Terrestrial planets, like Earth, have a solid surface and a thin atmosphere compared to gaseous planets like Jupiter or Saturn.