Did you know Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl from England after it was discovered in 1930? Now, that's Kid Power! If you visited Pluto, you would be very light, so if you weighed 70 pounds, you would weigh only 4 pounds on Pluto! Little is known about Pluto because it's so far away, but we do know that Pluto is mostly brown and has three moons - Charon, Hydra, and Nix. Pluto's orbit around the sun is not circular like the other planets, but rather oval or egg shape. Because of this, its orbit is closer to the sun than Neptune at times!
Here's something really cool - if you get up before dawn in the next few weeks, you could see all the planets (except Saturn) along the path of the sun through the sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are visible, but you can see Uranus and Neptune if you have bincoculars or a telescope. For the last two months, they have been hiding hiding behind the sun, but this week they will be in a line above the rising sun! Venus will be the brightest and the most visible, while Jupiter will be the second brightest planet. Mars and Mercury will be tiny specks.
I hope you enjoyed that little journey - I thought it was out of this world! I think we should talk about all our planets and the solar system in future posts. So, did you know that Mickey's pet dog, Pluto the Pup, was named after the dwarf planet, Pluto? That's right - his name was originally "Rover" until 1931! He is a Bloodhound and was one of the dogs that tried to track Mickey down when he was an escaped prisoner in The Chain Gang. I have chosen a cute video with Mickey and Pluto on friendlier terms called Playful Pluto! http://youtu.be/mxMAQbAI6ekLet me know if you already knew some of these facts - maybe you should be a feature blogger on BDD and write a post of your own! THE SKY'S THE LIMITS, MY FRIENDS!
