Discovered in 1930 by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto is out of the ordinary. Of an equatorial diameter lower than 2 500 km, it represents only tenth two of the Earth. Not satisfied to be, so far, the smallest member of the solar system, it also possesses an eccentric and very oblique orbit with regard to the plan of the ecliptic. Sometimes even, Pluto is closer of the Sun that Neptune. It is crossed in the perihelion Near the Sun. It is the point the closest to the Sun in the orbit of a planet. in 1989, its passage in the aphelion Far from the Sun. It is the point the most remote from the Sun in the orbit of a planet. is planned for 2113. Pluto is the second dwarfish planet of the solar system by the size. It orbits around the Sun at a distance varying between 29 and 49 astronomical units and belongs to the belt of Kuiper. It is about the first trans-Neptunian object of having been discovered. | The solar system, which counted nine planets since 1930, contains no more than eight since August, 2006. Further to this modification of the nomenclature, Pluto was added to the list of the minor objects of the solar system and saw attributing the number 134340 in the catalog of the minor objects. Photo of Pluto with the top, its main satellite Charon, the couple turns around a center of mass located outside of Pluto, as two objects connected by a central bar rigid, like a dumbbell.
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