• Question: whats pluto like these days :)

    Asked by lukehatton to Chris, Eva, Michael, Paddy, Philip on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Paddy Brock

      Paddy Brock answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      No idea, I’m afraid. But I did just read that it was originally named by an 11 year old school girl! Pretty early start to a science career! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4596246.stm)

    • Photo: Chris Jordan

      Chris Jordan answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Its probably in huff after being downsized from planet status. Rather sad really but we’d found a lot of other things like it – ie same size or even bigger than pluto and we weren’t going to call them planets.

    • Photo: Michael Wharmby

      Michael Wharmby answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      The surface isn’t very friendly, with a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide (wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto) it’s not very breathable! It’s also very cold (-230C apparently – wiki). Not a particularly desirable holiday destination, even in summer. I suppose it might appeal to the snowboarding fraternity…

    • Photo: Philip Denniff

      Philip Denniff answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Chris thank you for confirming my memory that pluto has been ejected from the list of solar planets. In Greek mythology Pluto (Latin form of Hades) was the ruler of the underworld, I dont supose he is very happy with having his panet down graded. Astronomers should be careful. But then again Pluto was also the dog in Walt Disney’s cartoons and appeared alongside Mike Mouse and is still bouncing around.

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