Pluto for Kids | Learn all about the UNplanet in our solar system

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Why isn't Pluto a planet anymore? In this kids video, you'll learn that Pluto has a story as mysterious as its distant location. Discovered in 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld. Believe it or not, an 11-year-old English girl named Venetia Burney was the one who suggested the name. Pluto orbits the sun at an average distance of about 3.67 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, making it one of the farthest known objects in our solar system.

When scientists discovered Pluto, they called it the ninth planet in our solar system. At the time, it fit the general understanding of what made something a planet; it orbited the sun. It was large enough to be shaped by gravity into a round shape. For more than 70 years, it held its place in textbooks and science lessons as the last planet in our solar system.

In 2006, however, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created a new definition of a planet. To qualify, a celestial body must orbit the sun, be spherical in shape due to its own gravity, and have cleared its orbit of other debris. Pluto met the first two criteria but not the third. It shares its orbit with objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy bodies beyond Neptune. Because of this, scientists reclassified Pluto as a "dwarf planet."

We hope you and your student(s) enjoyed learning about the UNplanet Pluto! If you want to learn even more, head over to our website and download one of our many lesson plans, full of activities, worksheets, and more!



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What you will learn in Pluto for Kids:
0:00 Introduction
0:20 Facts about Pluto
1:03 Temperature and atmosphere
2:17 Why Pluto isn't a planet anymore
3:10 Special features of Pluto

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