For most of our lives, we’ve considered Pluto a planet, much like any other planet in our solar system. However, all of that changed when in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto as a “Dwarf Planet”. A controversial decision that was largely based on the discovery of numerous icy objects similar to Pluto with eccentric orbits. Needless to say, today Pluto is no longer classified as a planet (which could change due to some recent events with the IAU) but that does not make it any less interesting…
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Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl, Venetia Burney of Oxford, England.
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Pluto's surface is one of the coldest places in the solar system at roughly minus 375 degrees F (minus 225 degrees C).
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Pluto is the only dwarf planet to once have been considered a major planet.
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NASA's New Horizons mission will be the first probe to study Pluto. It was launched on January 2006, and will be near Pluto on July 2015.
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In a very controversial move, Pluto was demoted to the status of a dwarf planet in 2006.
