Pluto Got Kicked Out

Pluto got kicked out!!!

By Tara

Table of Contents

Introduction ...........................................................................................3

Pluto and His Place in the Solar System .............................................4

If Pluto Is Not a Planet, Then Where Does He Belong?.....................5

Planets vs. Dwarf Planets......................................................................6

Pluto's Fun Facts - A Very "COOL" Dwarf Planet!...............................7

Closing.....................................................................................................8

Introduction

Why did Pluto get kicked out of the planet family? Did you ever wonder about that? Well, I do today. Did maybe planet Saturn kicked Pluto in the butt and sent him off travelling through space? Or maybe scientists didn't like him anymore as a planet?
So, let's go into space and let us figure it out together!
In my book we will learn a lot about planet families, dwarf planets and do not forget the fun facts about Pluto!

I am so sad.....
HELP ME !!!!!!!!!

Pluto and His Place in the Solar System

In the past our solar system had 9 planets. Today the solar system counts only 8 planets. Pluto used to be counted as the 9th planet for 75 years but not anymore. He is still the 9th largest body which circles around our sun like all the other big planets do.
Hmm...let's talk more about where Pluto is to be found. He is located in a very icy place at the edge of our solar system called the Kuiper belt.

Hi, I am the
Kuiper belt - home of Pluto.

If Pluto Is Not a Planet, Then Where Does He Belong?

In 2006 Pluto was categorized in a with 3 other objects about the same size as Pluto. Ceres, Makemake and Eris are dwarf planets and so is Pluto.
Now we know, Pluto belongs to his new family called the dwarf planet family.

Hi family!

We prefer to be called "little planets"

Planets vs. Dwarf Planets

As you can see dwarf planets are very similar to planets. Both orbit the sun and both are massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity into a spherical shape. But there is one important difference. Planets drive alone on there "highway" around the sun in contrast to dwarf planets. They share there "intergalactic highway" around the sun with other bodies of rock, ice and asteroid-like objects.

Pluto's Fun Facts - A Very "COOL" Dwarf Planet!

- Pluto is a small and light brown ball of rock and ice
- He is super cold and even has icy volcanoes on his surface
- WOW! Pluto has no magnetic field and only sometimes an atmosphere

- On your 1st birthday on Pluto you would be already 246 Earth years old
- A day on Pluto is 6 Earth days long

- The sun looks like a little bigger but not much more than regular star in
Pluto's dark sky
- Pluto is really small - his diameter is only the half of the width of the United States
- Even though Pluto is small he has 3 times the amount of water than all
of Earth's water combined

Closing

WOW - I can't believe we got to the end of the book! In our intergalactic journey we found out that there are different planet families. The families are categorized by definitions made by scientists. We also figured out, that Pluto loves to live with neighbors in his orbit and not alone like the big planets. And that is the reason why scientist put him in a new family. We found our answer!