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Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, ... Pluto's origin and identity had long puzzled astronomers.
1st century sculpture of Pluto in the Getty Villa. In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων, Ploutōn) was the ruler of the Greek underworld.The earlier name for the god was Hades, which became more common as the name of the underworld itself.
Clyde William Tombaugh (/ ˈ t ɒ m b aʊ /; February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer.He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt.
Pluto likely acquired large moon Charon in a “kiss and capture” collision billions of years ago. ... the colliding material was regarded as a strengthless fluid, meaning Pluto and Charon would ...
The decision to name the object Pluto was intended in part to honour Percival Lowell, as his initials made up the word's first two letters. [30] After discovering Pluto, Tombaugh continued to search the ecliptic for other distant objects. He found hundreds of variable stars and asteroids, as well as two comets, but no further planets. [31]
The distance between Charon and Pluto is about 12,200 miles (19,640 km), compared to the 238,855 miles (384,400 km) on average separating Earth from its moon.
The geology of Pluto consists of the characteristics of the surface, crust, and interior of Pluto. Because of Pluto's distance from Earth, in-depth study from Earth is difficult. Many details about Pluto remained unknown until 14 July 2015, when New Horizons flew through the Pluto system and began transmitting data back to Earth. [1]
Pluto and Charon are an example of this type of configuration. [114] There is no consensus on the mechanism of the formation of the rings of Saturn. Although theoretical models indicated that the rings were likely to have formed early in the Solar System's history, [115] data from the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft suggests they formed relatively ...