Pluto is the ninth planet from the sun and outermost known member of the solar system. Pluto was discovered as the result of a telescopic search started in 1905 by the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who postulated the existence of a distant planet beyond Neptune as the cause of slight perturbations in the motions of Uranus. Continued by members of the Lowell Observatory staff, the search ended successfully in 1930, when the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh found Pluto near the position Lowell had predicted.

Pluto revolves about the sun once in 247.7 Earth years at an average distance of 5.9 billion km from the sun. The orbit is so eccentric that at certain points along its path Pluto is closer to the sun than is Neptune. No possibility of collision exists, however, because Pluto's orbit is inclined more than 17.2° to the plane of the ecliptic and never actually crosses Neptune's path.

Characterstics of Pluto: