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Brief Run Down
Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It was the first and the largest Kuiper belt object to be discovered. After Pluto was discovered in 1930 it was declared to be the ninth planet from the Sun. Beginning in the 1990s, its status as a planet was questioned following the discovery of several objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt, including the dwarf planet Eris. This led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006 to formally define the term "planet" excluding Pluto and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet.
Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It was the first and the largest Kuiper belt object to be discovered. After Pluto was discovered in 1930 it was declared to be the ninth planet from the Sun. Beginning in the 1990s, its status as a planet was questioned following the discovery of several objects of similar size in the Kuiper belt, including the dwarf planet Eris. This led the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006 to formally define the term "planet" excluding Pluto and reclassifying it as a dwarf planet.
How Pluto Got It's Name
How Pluto Got It's Name
Pluto is the only world (so far) named by an 11-year-old girl. In 1930, Venetia Burney of Oxford, England, suggested to her grandfather that the new discovery be named for the Roman god of the underworld. He forwarded the name to the Lowell Observatory and it was selected.
Discovery
Clyde Tombaugh initially had no formal training in astronomy, only a keen interest that had been sharpened by his first glimpse of the heavens through his uncle’s telescope. After finishing high school, Tombaugh built his own telescope according to specifications published in a 1925 issue of Popular Astronomy. Using this instrument, he made observations of Jupiter and Mars and sent sketches of these planets to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, hoping to receive advice about his work.
Tombaugh soon received a job offer to locate the ninth planet, a project that hasn't been touched since 1905 by astronomer Percival Lowell. To carry out this task, Tombaugh used a 33-cm (13-inch) telescope to photograph the sky and an instrument called a blink comparator to examine the photographic plates for signs of moving celestial bodies. On February 18, 1930, Tombaugh pinpointed Pluto, and on March 13 Lowell Observatory announced the discovery of the new planet. (In 2006 Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.)
Here is Clyde Tombaugh standing next to a Telescope
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