We have very little information about this little planet. Even with our fastest spacecraft, it will take you more than 10 years to get there, and once you arrive we can't promise you much more than ice and more ice! Since you would be the first pioneer to this desolate planet, we cannot guarantee your safe return. We will, however, provide you with our most up-to-date equipment and establish communications with your spacecraft as soon as you depart. This excursion is only for the most daring!

Pluto is the farthest planet from the Sun, which also means it has the longest orbit of all the planets in this solar system. It is also the slowest moving planet, so at 3,673 million miles away from the Sun, Pluto takes 248 years to make a complete revolution around the Sun. Like other planets, Pluto also rotates and makes a complete rotation once every 6 days, 9 hours, and 18 minutes.

It is also the smallest planet in this solar system with a diameter of 1,417 miles. Some scientists feel that Pluto should be classified as an asteroid or large comet rather than a planet. Other astronomers argue that asteroids and comets don't have atmospheres like planets. They believe that Pluto's atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, which is frozen most of the time. When Pluto's orbit brings it closer to the Sun, some of the nitrogen ice melts, combines with methane to become gaseous and forming a thin atmosphere around Pluto. There is some evidence that the atmosphere extends to include Charon, Pluto's moon. When Pluto is farthest from the Sun, its atmosphere condenses and falls to the surface as frost. Because Pluto and Charon are comparable in size, many scientists consider them to be a double planet

Scientists believe that it resembles Triton, Neptune's largest moon, with a surface made up of 70% rock and 30% water in the form of ice. There are light-colored ice caps of nitrogen ice on each of Pluto's poles. For nitrogen to freeze, the temperatures must be very, very cold. Therefore, scientists predict that the temperature on Pluto is about 400 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.

There are some features seen on Pluto that cannot be explained. For instances, telescopic photographs reveal bright areas around the middle of the planet. Sometimes a stripe can be seen crossing its surface.

Pluto's orbit is extremely elliptical. This causes Pluto to slip inside of Neptune's orbit once every 248 Earth years for a period of twenty years. There are also times when Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune, which occurred between 1979 and 1999.

Check out other interesting sites about Pluto:

More links to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Solar System: