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You are here: Home / Space / Where Did Pluto Come From, How Did the Planet Pluto Get Its Name, and What Is the Planet Pluto Like?

Where Did Pluto Come From, How Did the Planet Pluto Get Its Name, and What Is the Planet Pluto Like?

July 30, 2020 by Karen Hill

Many astronomers believe that Pluto was an escaped moon of Neptune, knocked out of orbit by its largest current moon, Triton.

This hypothesis has been heavily criticised because Pluto never comes near Neptune in its orbit.

The discovery of Pluto made headlines across the globe, and its name was proposed by Venetia Burney, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England.

Named after the Roman god of the underworld, its name is appropriate for such a presumably dark and cold world.

We know very little about Pluto because no spacecraft has gone near it, and its small size and great distance make observation difficult.

Pluto is 3.6 billion miles (5.8 billion km) from Earth.

It would take more than 45 million Earths placed side by side to cover the distance between the two planets.

Like Neptune, Pluto was discovered as a result of mathematical computation.

Its orbit is decidedly irregular, and Pluto’s origins are debated, in the scientific community, but even more so in the media.

Related Facts

  • What Is the Ninth Planet From the Sun, How Far Away Is Pluto, and Is Pluto a Planet, a Moon, or an Asteroid?
  • How Is Pluto’s Orbit Around the Sun Irregular and What Is the Planet Pluto’s Perihelion and Aphelion?
  • How do astronomers know how far away stars and galaxies are from earth?
  • How Does the Moon Always Keep the Same Face Toward Earth?
  • Where Is Planet X Located, Why Was Pluto Called Planet X, and Why Hasn’t Planet X Been Found?
  • Why Is There a Simultaneous High Tide On Both Sides of the Earth and What Causes the Tide Generating Force?

Filed Under: Space

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « How Big Is Pluto and How Big Is the Planet Pluto Compared To Earth and Mercury?
Next Post: How Is Pluto Different From the Other Outer Planets and Why Is Pluto’s Orbit Around the Sun So Chaotic? »

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