Astronomical Object
The Resume
Fromer Ninth planet from the star Sol
Distance from the Sun : 2.9 billion to 4.6 billion miles
Diameter: 1,485 miles
Length of Year: 248.5 years
Orbital Speed: 2.9 miles per second (10,440 mph)
Composition: nitrogen ice, rock, trace of frozen methane
Atmospheric Composition: Nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide - amounts unknown
Natural Satellites: 1 (Charon)
Discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh (February 18, 1930)
Status reduced from Planet to dwarf planet (August 24, 2006)
Why Pluto might be annoying
It is no longer a planet.
A conference of 3,000 astronomers reduced it's status (August 24, 2006).
A Pluto-Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Mission was slated, but shut down by President George W. Bush (2001).
Why Pluto might not be annoying
Between the time Lowell went looking for it and Tombaugh discovered it, the cool name it was given was Planet X.
For dieters, if you weigh 160 pounds, you would weigh about 11 pounds on here.
Its moon, Charon, was discovered in 1978 by Jim Christy. Though officially named after the mythological figure who ferried the dead across the River Acheron into Hades, unofficially it was named in honor of Christy's wife, Charlene.
Its moon is almost half the size of it, so some people call them together the 'double planet.'
It's the subject of songs, including the B-52's 'Hallucinating Pluto,' Björk's 'Pluto' and The Dead Kennedys 'One-Way Ticket to Pluto.'
A spacecraft has been built to explore it. The New Horizons Mission, nicknamed the 'first mission to the last planet,' took off on January 11, 2006.
Credit: Scar Tactics
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Year In Review:
For 2009, as of last week, Out of 129 Votes: 36.43% Annoying
In 2008, Out of 129 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2007, Out of 226 Votes: 44.25% Annoying
In 2006, Out of 1045 Votes: 39.81% Annoying
In 2005, Out of 454 Votes: 43.61% Annoying
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