Pluto

At the edge of our solar system (in the Kuiper Belt) is Pluto. Nearly 6000 million kilometres from the Sun. There it is always night and freezing cold, about 230 degrees below zero. Pluto is a dwarf planet in the cold.

Pluto is named after the god of the underworld. This name was chosen by an 11-year-old girl from England. The dwarf planet is so called because it is the farthest away from the sun. Unlike other planets, Pluto is a mixture of ice and rock.

Pluto revolves around the sun in 248 Earthly years! Not in a circle, but in an egg shape. Sometimes Pluto is closer to the sun, sometimes further away! Pluto is so far away that there have been no people. However, a NASA spacecraft flew past Pluto in the summer of 2015. This spacecraft has taken pictures of Pluto. This spacecraft is called New Horizons and left in 2006 for its trip to Pluto. Before 2006, Pluto was called 'planet' (the ninth, in outer orbit around the sun). Now it is only called a 'dwarf planet'.