Venus is the only planet named after a woman. In fact, she's named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love. Venus was once thought to be two stars, the morning star and the evening star. The morning star was known as Lucifer which meant light-bringer. Vesper was the name of the Evening star. Venus and Earth are so similar in size, gravity, mass and so on that they were sometimes called twin stars.

Venus is hot, in fact it is over 450 degrees Celsius and the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. Its atmosphere is denser than any other planet. There's no liquid water on the surface because its too hot. Despite the smooth plains, its surface has thousands of volcanoes. The lava flow carves channels longer than any other planet. It also has six mountain regions.

Its the brightest star and planet in the night sky and can be often spotted by the naked eye. Part of this is because its the closest planet, but the reflective clouds also help in this. It takes 243 Earth days to rotate on its axis, the slowest of any of the major planets. Venus does not have a magnetic field. Its rotation is the opposite of most other planets, the sun appearing to rise in the east and setting in the west. Its year is 225 Earth days long, but its days are 117 years from sunrise to sunrise. Venus has no moons.

Magnus Lee, Ravenclaw

((OOC: used http://www.space.com/44-venus-second-planet-from-the-sun-brightest-planet-in-solar-system.html ))

Jupiter’s interior is made of rock, metal, and hydrogen compounds. Below Jupiter’s massive atmosphere, which is made primarily of hydrogen, there are layers of compressed hydrogen gas, liquid metallic hydrogen, and a core of ice, rock, and metals. It's atmospheric environment is one of strong gravity, high pressure, strong winds, from 225 miles per hour to 1000 miles per hour, and cold temperatures of -270 degrees to +32 degrees; I'm already cold just by writing it, brrrr. In the atmosphere there are at least three known cloud decks of ammonia, ammonia-combined-with-sulfur, and water, perhaps even made of huge droplets. There is energy in the environment from lightning, ultraviolet light, and charged particles. Jupiter's interior possesses an environment of pressures as great as three million times the sea-level pressure on Earth, and temperatures as high as 10,000 degrees, so it doesn't seem good for wizards to live there, what a pity.

Jupiter has a thin ring system and they are composed mainly of dust particles ejected from some of Jupiter’s smaller worlds during impacts from incoming comets and asteroids. The ring system begins some 92,000 kilometers above Jupiter’s cloud tops and stretches out to more than 225,000 km from the planet. They are between 2,000 to 12,500 kilometers thick and I think they are very beautiful to look at.

There are 67 known moons of Jupiter, this gives Jupiter the largest number of moons with reasonably stable orbits of any planet in the Solar System. The most massive of the moons are the four Galilean moons, which were independently discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius and were the first objects found to orbit a body that was neither Earth nor the Sun. These large moons, named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, are each distinctive worlds. Of Jupiter's moons, eight are regular satellites with prograde and nearly circular orbits that are not greatly inclined with respect to Jupiter's equatorial plane. The Galilean satellites are nearly spherical in shape due to their planetary mass, and so would be considered planets if they were in direct orbit around the Sun. The other four regular satellites are much smaller and closer to Jupiter; these serve as sources of the dust that makes up Jupiter's rings. The remainder of Jupiter's moons are irregular satellites.

Io is the most volcanic active body in the solar system, the surface is covered by sulfur in different colorful forms. As Io travels in its slightly elliptical orbit, Jupiter's immense gravity causes "tides" in the solid surface that rise 300 feet high on Io, generating enough heat for volcanic activity and to drive off any water. Europa's surface is mostly water ice, and there is evidence that it may be covering an ocean of water or slushy ice beneath. Europa is thought to have twice as much water as does Earth, this moon intrigues astrobiologists because of its potential for having a "habitable zone." Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system (larger than the planet Mercury), and is the only moon known to have its own internally generated magnetic field. Callisto is the eighth moon of Jupiter and is a large, dark but low-density moon which is covered with impact craters. It is home to the Valhalla crater, which is nearly 4,000 km in diameter and the largest crater in the solar system. It is the outermost of the Galilean moons, orbiting 1,170,000 miles from Jupiter. It takes Callisto 16.7 days to complete its orbit around Jupiter and during that time it will have traveled more than seven million miles, quite amazing if you ask me.

Tilcarnis System Aria Quin Lee

The universe is full of amazing and wonderful features, many of which scientists have yet to discover. One such planetary system lies in a far distant galaxy that has yet to be named. The unnamed galaxy is known simply as ULAS D2235+0210, which has now been named Valaer, by Aria Quin Lee. Near the periphery of the galaxy Valaer is a planetary system named Tilcarnis, moniker chosen by Lee. The Tilcarnis system is not very unique in structure as it is a binary system, consisting of an orange dwarf with an orbital white dwarf. In the known universe, binary systems have been seen as the more common type of planetary structure than heliocentric systems in which there is only one star.

The Tilcarnis system is comprised of the following planets (all named by Lee):

Tilcarnis system Stars: orange dwarf: Tilcarn - white dwarf: Tillic Planet 1: Afimas, no satelites Planet 2: Trime, 6 satelites Planet 3: Silhartn, no satelites Planet 4: Xenial, 11 satelites Planet 5: Caipil, 2 satellites: Cai and Tath Planet 6: Riquind, 18 satelites

The planet being discussed in further detail in this paper is Caipil. This planet has only two satellites orbiting it, which seems to be an anomaly for the system, as all other planets in the system have either zero or more than six satellites in oribt. Caipil seems to have an atmosphere but it appears to be made primarily of methane and nitrous oxides. The planet revolves rather quickly on its axis, having approximately a 7.5 hour day. The planet needs further time to asses many of its other features.

The two satellites are on an eccentric orbit around their planet Caipil, which causes them to be geothermally active. The eccentricity of the satellites path messages their inner cores, which creates friction heat, which is how the satellites remain geologically active. The two satellites appear to have a thin atmosphere; however the atmospheric composition has not yet been determined.

This new system is sure to cause a great uproar in the scientific community; as many explorers will want to see if these planets fall in the goldilocks zone for habitable earth like exoplanets.

Eirik adjusted the dials on his telescope, activating the further distance enhancements. His sight reached magically to the Outer Rim, and he found the Sluis sector, and then the system that he was looking for.

The Dagobah System housed a number of planets and moons, but he was looking for the planet Dagobah itself, with its moon Gus Treta. He smiled as he located it.

While gazing at it, he pondered on how the planet came to get its name. On our planet, Dagobah was a reference to a dome shaped memorial that traditonally held relics of the Buddha or Buddhist saints. Loosely translated, the planet was dome shaped and was purported to hold the beginings of great spirituality.

He adjusted the scope to get a closer look at the planet, and managed to see the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere.

It certainly was beautiful, and reminded him so much of Earth.

Eirik had read about Dagobah in an astronomy book back at Durmstrang, and was fascinated with the planet. He brought to mind the details he had read:

Rotation period 23 standard hours

Orbital period 341 local days

Class Terrestrial

Diameter 8,900 km

Atmosphere Oxygen mix

Climate Murky

Primary terrain Swamp Bogs Jungles Bayous

Surface water c. 8%

Government None

Population None

Major cities None

Major imports None

Major exports None

Yet they had gotten massive life form readings. There had been some images gotten from the huge space telescope outside of Moscow, and from it they had gathered much information, even though no one had been there yet.

From those pictures, they had put together a drawing of what they believed the ecosystem of the planet would be like.

They had managed to get a picture of the actual surface, which was swampy and full of flora.

There were also some strange creatures they had glimpses of, a creature they named a Dragonsnake that lived mostly underwater

a monitor-like creature they called a Sleen

an iguana-looking reptile they called a Nudj

a t-rex looking reptile they called a Picobi

and even some flying reptiles that looked like pterodactyls that they named Bogwigs

Eirik smiled, gazing up at the planet. He thought how wonderful it would be to visit Dagobah in person, even with all the risks. To him, the lush, green world reminded him of a time long past, when his world was young and unspoiled...Nature at it's purest. The wilderness had always been a special place of deep spirituality, and he believed somehow that Dagobah would live up to its name.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and about half the diameter of Earth. Named after a Roman god, it is also sometimes referred to as the “red planet” because of the iron oxide, or rust on its surface that gives it a reddish look. It is one of the terrestrial planets in our solar system, meaning it is made up of mainly rocks and metals. Smaller than it’s siblings with the exception of Venus. Mars has a thin atmosphere with a very similar rotational period to Earth’s. It is also home to the largest volcano, Olumpus Mons, and second highest known mountain in our solar system. Three times the height of Mount Everest.

Water has been found on Mars, but exists primarily in a frozen state on the surface. It can be spotted on the north polar ice caps. Also beneath the ice, but never in a melted state on the planet's surface due to it’s low atmospheric pressure. If the ice caps were to melt however, it is estimated that the water would cover the entire planet's surface thirty six feet deep. Even with water being found on it’s surface, the soil doesn’t make for very good growing conditions. Not to mention the thin atmosphere allows for higher radiation levels than humans are able to tolerate.

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. They are on the smaller side for moons, and feature irregular shapes hinting that they may well be captured asteroids that got caught up in Mars’s gravitational pull. Phobos is closer to Mars and rotates around it much faster than Deimos. Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east, and rises again after only eleven hours. Deimos on the other hand rises in the easy but very slowly, it takes about two and a half days between its rise and set. Eventually it is speculated that Phobos will crash into Mars.

~Fade, Ravenclaw

Beneath his essay Fade doodles a drawing of the red planet and its lumpy moons.

((I hope this post works, subeta has been eating them recently... I referenced the Mars wiki page, and found the illustration on http://worldartsme.com/mars/))

The planet is about the size as ours. It's also the closest to Earth and has a core, mantle, and crust similar to Earth. Venus, however, rotates signifcantly slower than our planet. It takes about 243 of our days to amount to one day on Venus. Since it spins so slowly, it's magnetic field is weak. Also, it take 225 Earth-days for Venus to orbit the sun. Despite being considered our "sister" planet, it is far from habitable.

In fact, I'd imagine it to be a hell of some sort. For starters, a day is long there, as I've mentioned. It's also the hottest planet in our solar system. Definitely, too harsh and hostile to sustain any sort of life. It has a pressure that is about 90 times that of Earth's. So any small object coming in will be crushed before it can leave a crator on the planet. It's like being 1,000 kilometers under sea level. The planet is very dry and plagued with many volcanoes. There are more volcanoes here, quite a few still active, than any other in our solar system. Mountainous regions make up about a third of this planets and the clouds here are more than likely poisonous. If only there was a portkey or spell to send my enemies to this hellish rock...

Mercury is the smallest planet, however it is also the second most dense. It has a rocky body like Earth's and is comprised of a crust, mantle, and core. Mercury's surface is not unlike that of Earth's moon, full of plains, basins, and craters. It shows evidence of past volcanic activity, as well as current vast deposits of water ice. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and the most iron-rich.

Mercury has the most eccentric orbit of all the planets. Someone who is of a "mercurial" temperament is described as "subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind." It takes 87.969 Earth days to complete an orbit around the sun. Mercury has no known moons.

First documented by the Assyrians in the 8th Century BCE, the ringed "Star of Ninib", human history has been vastly interested in not only the geography but the magical properties of the planet that is named Saturn. The Ancient Greeks named it "Wanderer" after their agricultural god Kronos and the Ancient Romans named it "Saturn" after theirs. It is this name that endures to the modern era. For several centuries, until the scientists of the 17th century proved otherwise, Saturn was the most distant planet however it is now know as the sixth planet from the Sun.

Saturn is a gas giant composed mainly of the elements Hydrogen and Helium. It has a mass of 5.68 x 10^26 kgs and is 120,536 km in diameter. It has 53 confirmed moons, 9 provisional moons, and over 30 rings. Each year on saturn is equivalent to 29.5 Earth Years. The strong winds which can reach 110m/s cause the atmospheric yellow and gold bands. Saturn's core is a dense mixture of rick, ice, water, and numerous other compounds that have become solid under the intense internal pressure and heat. Liquid metallic hydrogen inside liquid hydrogen surrounds this core.

Saturn's moons are as follows: Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Aegaeon, Mimas, Methone, Anthe, Pallene, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Polydeuces, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Kiviuq, Ijiraq, Phoebe, Paaliaq, Skathi, Albiorix, S/2007 S 2, Bebhionn, Erriapo, Skoll, Siarnaq, Tarqeq, S/2004 S 13, Greip, Hyrrokkin, Jarnsaxa, Tarvos, Mundilfari, S/2006 S 1, S/2004 S 17, Bergelmir, Narvi, Suttungr, Hati, S/2004 S 12, Farbauti, Thrymr, Aegir, S/2007 S 3, Bestla, S/2004 S 7, S/2006 S 3, Fenrir, Surtur, Kari, Ymir, Loge, Fornjot, and S/2009 S 1

Saturn symbolises many things for many different cultures and disciplines. For the Chinese, it symbolises rulership and imperial control whilst in astrology Saturn represents the sign of Capricorn, a methodical and purposeful mover. Amongst others, Saturn represents Authority, Transition, Time, Stability, Unrevealed Power, and Death. For the Wizarding world, Saturn is a planet that is tracked vigorously given it's power of manifestation and bringing our intentions to form. Saturn is said to aid in transfiguration, necromantic rituals, protection, and shielding magic. Saturn is often invoked to celebrate the power of the primal and ancient ones, and it is well noted that these rituals work best on Saturdays and are most powerful on a Saturnalia that happens to fall on a Saturday.

Slytherin

Sources: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/indepth http://space-facts.com/saturn/ http://www.whats-your-sign.com/saturn-symbol-meaning.html http://nineplanets.org/saturn.html http://christopherpenczak.com/planetary-magic-7-saturn-karma-and-protection/#.WHRgdLZ97VU http://christopherpenczak.com/planetary-magic-7-saturn-karma-and-protection/#.WHRgdLZ97VU

A day on Mars is only slightly longer than a day on Earth, by an extra forty minutes. However, Mars takes almost twice as long as Earth to complete one year. After almost two years on Earth, Mars will have completed one year. Mars has the most Earth-like seasons out of any of the planets in the solar system, and because of the longer years, the seasons on Mars are also longer. Mars has a thin atmosphere, which makes for a good range of temperatures: -143C to 35C. Mars has a unique weather element, as it has the largest dust storms in the entire solar system. These dust storms can be so large that they cover the entire planet at once.

Mars has two Moons, which are known as Phobos and Deimos. Phobos appears to orbit closer to Mars, while Deimos is farther away. Phobos orbits the planet very quickly; after it sets below the horizon, it can be seen rising again just eleven hours later. Deimos on the other hand, takes even longer to orbit than Mars takes to rotate. Deimos takes thirty hours to orbit, however, because it is slower than Mars' rotation, after it sets it will take almost 3 days before it can be seen rising again.

Mars is theorized to have once been very similar to Earth, before it lost its magnetosphere and became vulnerable to solar winds, and thus is suspected to have once supported life. Traces of such evidence are still being searched for.

Saturn has sixty-two moons, although only fifty-three have been officially named. These do not include the hundreds of smaller moons that are compromised around the rings. The largest and most prominent moon of Saturn is Titan. It's the second biggest in the Solar System and is larger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon of the planet to have a substantial atmosphere. The other named moons are: Encaladus, Mimas, Lapetus, Dione, Tethys, Rhea, Phoebe, Hyperion, Pandora, Pan, Janus, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Telesto, Calypso, Daphnis, Helene, Mathone, Pallene, Paaliaq, Polydeuces, Ymir, Albiorix, Anthe, Kiviuq, Siamaq, Ijiraq, Narvi, Bebhionn, Aegir, Bergelmir, Kari, Skathi, Tarvos,Thrymr, Erriapus, Mundilfari, Suttongr, Farbauti, Bestla, Fenrir, Fornjot, Skoll, Jarnsaxa, Loge, Greip, Hyrrokkin, Tarqeq, and Surtur.

She set up her telescope and looked through it towards the sky. It took her quite some time but eventually she found a planet. She jumped up and wanted to start her essay on the planet, but then it hit her that she had no clue which planet she had just found with the telescope. She looked again and tried to remember what she knew about the planets from her books.

Rox looked at the planet again. This time she noticed that the planet had no moons. She could remember that there were only two planets without moons. She quickly grabbed her book and started to look for more information. And there is was, black on white, Venus. She smiled as she read more about the planet and started to write her essay.

Venus is the second planet from the sun and named after the Roman godess of love and beauty. It’s a terrestrial planet composed primarily of rocks and/or metals. It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets, with the atmosphere containing more than 96% carbon dioxide. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system with a temperature of 863 Fahrenheit (735 Kelvin). The planet may have had oceans at one time, but due to the extreme temperatures the water has vaporized.

Although all the planetary orbits are elliptical, Venus’s orbit is the closest to being circular. The planet completes an orbit every 224,7 days. Once every 243 Earth days Venus rotates clockwise in retrograde, the slowest rotation of any planet.

[OOC: Source for the essay has been https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus]

Rox Oatwood - Gryffindor

Sitting the farthest from our Sun is the eighth planet Neptune. Named after the Roman god of the sea it is the only planet that was discovered not by telescope but mathmatical prediction. Alexis Bouvard deduced its existence due to unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus. Finally on the 23 of September in 1846 it was observed through telescope by Johann Galle.

Neptune's axis and gravity are very similar to that of Earth's. Its Orbital period is 165 years with an average day length of 16 hours and 6 minutes and seasons that last 40 Earth years.

Neptune has a total of 14 moons in all. Its largest moon, Triton, was discovered shortly after the planet's discovery, though none of the planet's remaining 13 'known' moons would be found until the 20th century. Triton is the only major moon that orbits "backwards" and holds the title of coldest region in our Solar System. The other 13 moons are as such; Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Nereid, Halimede, Sao, Laomedeia, Psamathe, Neso and the newest s/2004 N1. All except the newest moon were named for lesser sea deities.

Neptune has a faint and fragmented ring system that is considered relatively new. Scientists believe that they could possibly have been created due to a moon colliding with the planet. Many of Neptune's smaller moons orbit inside its rings. The rings are dark in color, in contrast to Saturn's, and are known to contain ice as well as many other elements.

Most fascinatingly is the atmosphere of planet Neptune. Due to its great distance from the Sun it surprisingly has the strongest winds in the Solar System, clocking at 2000 km/ hour. This is special due to most wind formations needing the energy from the sun to be created. Neptune uses its internal heat source, which radiates more then twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun, to generate the powerful storms and vortice's.

Neptune has valleys, volcanoes, and craters and is considered one of the coldest places in our Solar System. Also due to the extreme pressure on the planet and chemical components in its atmosphere, Neptune has rain storms consisting of giant diamonds.

In closing, a fun thought, due to Neptune's presence of water in the form of ice, it is hypothesized that the planet could potentially contain life, be it somewhere between the frigid cold (-360.4 F) and the extreme heat of its core (9260.33 F), due to all water containing some form of life but until a new expedition is formed no one can know for sure!

The second planet of this system is Truncheon, the "Pummeler" It is named this because of its rapidity of orbit. Despite being 98 billion miles from the surface of 82 G. Eridani, the Truncheon orbits its star once every 49 days. However it rotates very slowly on its axis, producing no measurable magnetic field.

The Truncheon has 3 moons with slightly perturbed eliptical orbits. The largest of the Truncheon's moons is Verne, next in size is Asimov B, and finally, and controversially is the third moon, Heinlein. Heinlein has an erratic orbit, and can not be consistently viewed, even through the most powerful telescope on Earth. This has led some scientists to speculate that Heinlein might not be an actual moon, but rather a cloud of dust and hot gas.

Said red glow is due to the high concentration of iron oxide in its surface, an interesting fact given Mars’ ancient connection with the element iron in alchemy. Mars’ orbital period is approximately 687 Earth’s days, about 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours. Its rotation period lasts for about 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds, only slightly longer than an Earth day. Its axial tilt is 25.19 degrees relative to its orbital plane, and due to said tilt, which has a similar inclination to the one found on Earth, seasons in Mars are hence similar to Earth’s own, though lasting approximately twice as much due to the longer orbital period. Mars has the second most pronounced orbital eccentricity in the Solar System, after Mercury; as such, Mars’ orbit is much more elliptical, thus lasting longer, than Earth’s. It is theorized that gravity for nearby Earth and Jupiter affect Mars’ orbit, which could explain the gradual increase in its eccentricity during the last millennia.

Mars has two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. Both are slightly larger than asteroids, and are named after Mars’ mythological sons, the gods of fear and panic. Their origin is not fully known, though asteroids being captured by Mars’ gravity is a fairly accepted theory. Both have circular orbits around the planet’s equator, with Phobos’ being unstable due to being closer to the planet itself. It is theorized that Phobos may crash into Mars' surface or shatter into smaller objects if it gets closer to the planet.

Kyros Riven, House Slytherin

Uranus is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus, the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter), which in Latin became "Ūranus". It is the only planet whose name is derived from a figure of Greek mythology

Uranus's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary structure is hydrogen and helium, but it contains more "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane and with traces of other hydrocarbons. It has the coldest atmosphere in the Solar System, with a minimum temperature of 49 K (-371.92 F) Uranus has a complex, layered cloud structure with water thought to make up the lowest clouds and methane the uppermost layer of clouds. The interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.

Uranus has 27 known moons. The names of these satellites are chosen from characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The five most commonly known moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. The others include: Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, Ferdinand, Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Mab, Portia, Rosalind, Margaret, Perdita, Cupid, Puck, and Belinda.

The largest of Uranus's satellites, Titania, has a radius of only 788.9 km. They are ice–rock conglomerates composed of roughly 50% ice and 50% rock. The ice may include ammonia and carbon dioxide. Among the Uranian moons, Ariel appears to have the youngest surface with the fewest impact craters and Umbriel's the oldest. Miranda has fault canyons 20 kilometres deep, terraced layers, and a chaotic variation in surface ages and features.

There are thirteen distinct rings are presently known, the brightest being the ε ring.The rings are composed of extremely dark particles, which vary in size from micrometers to a fraction of a meter. All except two rings of Uranus are extremely narrow – they are usually a few kilometers wide. The rings are probably quite young; the dynamics considerations indicate that they did not form with Uranus. The matter in the rings may once have been part of a moon (or moons) that was shattered by high-speed impacts. From numerous pieces of debris that formed as a result of those impacts, only a few particles survived, in stable zones corresponding to the locations of the present ring.

The axis of rotation is approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System, with an axial tilt of 97.77°. This gives it seasonal changes unlike those of the other planets. Near the solstice, one pole faces the Sun continuously and the other faces away. Only a narrow strip around the equator experiences a rapid day and night cycle, but with the Sun low over the horizon. At the other side of Uranus's orbit the orientation of the poles towards the Sun is reversed. Each pole gets around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of darkness. Near the time of the equinoxes, the Sun faces the equator of Uranus giving a period of day and night cycles similar to those seen on most of the other planets. In contrast to the other planets, whose motions around the Sun resemble that of spinning tops, Uranus's motion can be visualized as that of a ball rolling on the ecliptic plane near solstices and of a spinning rifle bullet near equinoxes.

Uranus reached its most recent equinox on December 7, 2007

source: Wikipedia

The Dwarf Planet

Pluto, in astronomy, a dwarf planet and the first Kuiper belt, or transneptunian, object to be discovered (1930) by astronomers. Although Pluto was long regarded as a planet, following the discovery (beginning in 1992) of other Kuiper belt objects, including one with a diameter larger than that of Pluto, astronomers recognized the need to reclassify Pluto, and in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) ended official recognition of Pluto as a planet.

Pluto was the only planet to be named by a kid. After the planet was discovered in 1930, an 11-year-old girl who lived in Oxford, England, by the name of Venetia Burney, suggested that this new planet needed to be named after the Roman god of the underworld. Venetia's grandfather sent this suggestion to the Lowell Observatory and the name was accepted. Pluto is smaller than 7 of the moons in the Solar System. It is about two-thirds smaller than Earth's moon. Because it is so small, many scientists don't consider it a planet at all. In 1999, a group of scientists attempted to re-classify Pluto as a comet. On August 24, 2006, Pluto's status was officially changed from planet to dwarf planet. For decades, children have been taught in school that there are nine planets in our Solar System. However, with this change, there are now only eight planets. Also because of this change, there is a new category of small planets known as plutoids. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided the clearest images yet of this dwarf planet for scientists to study. Studies of Pluto and its moon are still being conducted today with the Hubble Space Telescope. However, little is still known about Pluto and its moons because it is so far away. Pluto has 5 moons. The largest is named Charon. Charon is only slightly smaller than its parent Pluto. For this reason, Pluto and Charon are often called a double planet system. The Earth and its moon, Luna, are sometimes considered double planets. Pluto's two other moons are called Hydra, Styx and Nix. The newest moon, only recently discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in the summer of 2011, is temporarily named Kerberos. It is located between the orbits of Nix and Hydra.

Pluto revolves around the Sun in an orbit that is not exactly circular like the rest of the planets. Rather, Pluto's orbit is more of an oval or egg shape. Because of this, Pluto will orbit inside of Neptune's orbit, which makes Pluto closer to the Sun than Neptune at times. Also, its orbit does not lie flat in the same plane as the rest of the planets. Pluto's orbit is tilted so it orbits above and below the other planets' orbits in our Solar System.