GENERAL DESCRIPTION
| Pluto is named after the Roman god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld. The name was considered appropriate because of the planet's enormous distance from the Sun's warmth. Since no spacecraft has visited Pluto in the past, the researchers can only take educated guesses. Pluto is known to be the smallest of the nine planets and smaller than seven of the planetary moons. A theory concerning the physical nature of Pluto holds that at one time it was actually one of the moons of Neptune. It is theorized that Pluto was somehow thrown out of its Neptune orbit by some calamitous interaction with Neptune's moon Triton - perhaps even a collision. Scientists are quite sure that the planet is extremely cold even at noontime in summer. The temperature rarely would creep above -350° F. |