User:JohnnyBGood/Pluto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pluto is the ninth and smallest of the traditional planets of the Solar system, though its status as a planet has been disputed in recent years. [1] It has an eccentric orbit that is highly inclined with respect to the other planets and takes it closer to the Sun than Neptune during a portion of its orbit. It is also the smallest planet and indeed is smaller than several moons of other planets (see the list of solar system objects by radius). Pluto itself has a large moon named Charon; two small moons named Nix and Hydra were discovered in 2005. The New Horizons spacecraft, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on January 19, 2006, is expected to become the first spacecraft to fly by Pluto on July 14 2015.
- For more uses of the term Pluto, see Pluto (disambiguation).
Pluto's astronomical symbol is a P-L monogram, ♇. This represents both the first two letters of the name Pluto and the initials of Percival Lowell, who had searched extensively for a ninth planet and who had lent his name to Lowell Observatory, the place from where, after initiating several earlier searches, Pluto was eventually discovered. (Another symbol sometimes used for Pluto is an astrological symbol and not an astronomical one. It resembles that of Neptune, ♆, but has a circle in place of the middle spoke of the trident.)
Pluto and its satellite Charon have often been considered a binary planet because they are more nearly equal in size than any other planet/moon combination in the Solar System.