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Asked by nathanhemborough to Callum, Gina, Katie, Michelle, Sam on 19 Nov 2012.
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Callum Johnston answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Pluto is tiny! Its less than 1% the size of the earth. It is approximately 1400 miles wide, which is just over twice the length of the UK!
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Katie Howe answered on 19 Nov 2012:
As Callum said Pluto is really quite small – well, compared to the other planets anyway! It is even smaller than our moon!
The fact it is so small was one of the reasons that astronomers recently decided that Pluto should not officially be called a planet anymore. Instead it is now officially called a dwarf planet! I find this very confusing because at school I learnt that there were 9 planets and now i have to remember there are only 8!
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Sam Godfrey answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Like Katie I also learnt 9 planets with the sentence My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets. giving me the first letter of each planets name. But now pluto is called a dwarf planet and there are also 4 other dwarf planets called Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. Ceres is in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the others are out past Neptune. Scientists reckon there are more dwarf planets out there, and also possibly (although many disagree) another massive planet out past pluto that we haven’t seen yet. (This is because something must be causing the strange orbits of the outer planets)
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Michelle Linterman answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Pluto is very tiny compared to the planets in our solar system. But is it part of a big dusty ring that surrounds our solar system, called the Kuiper belt. Astronomers decided to down-grade Pluto’s status to a dwarf-planet because in there are quite a few things in the Kuiper belt that are the same size as Pluto.
Astronomers think that some of the other planets, like Saturn & Neptune, stole their moons from the Kuiper belt. Cheeky!
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