pluto - dennis b. fradin - 1989

8/9/2019 Pluto - Dennis B. Fradin - 1989

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PLUTO

COMET

PLUTO

NEPTUNE

URANUS

r.

SUN

4

SPOTS

ASTEROIDS

MERCURY

^VENUS

JUPITER

MARS

EARTH

MOON



3

1833

01968

5509

J523.482

F'radfn,

Dennis

B

Pluto

l\<\o

ALLEN COUNTY

PUBLIC LIBRARY

FORT

WAYNE,

INDIANA

46802

You

may

return this

book

to any

agency,

branch,

or

bookmobile

of

the Allen

County

Public

Library.

/



6

^

Wl

ALLEN

COUNTY PUBLIC

LIBRARY

822Jh^Ql

M

j

523.

482

Fradin,

Dennis B.

Pluto



Digitized

by

the Internet

Archive

in

2011



A

New True

Book

PLUTO

By

Dennis

Brindell

Fradin

^f^

CHILDRENS PRESS®

CHICAGO



For

my

dear,

lovely daughter,

Diana Judith

Fradin

AP/Wide

World

Photos-2,

26, 28,

31,41,

43,

45

The

Bettmann

Archive—

1

6

(right)

'-

Reinhard

Brucker—

The

Granger

Collection,

New

York— 1

4,

1 7

(2

photos),

1

8 (2

photos),

20

(2

photos)

Historical

Pictures

Service,

Chicago—

25,

33

NASA-4, 8,

1

3 (3

photos),

1

6

(left),

21

,

23, 35, 37,

39,44

NASA-Jet

Propulsion Lab—

1

2 (3

photos)

Tony

Stone

Worldw/ide-Click/Chicago

^

Doug

Armand

—

Cover

Photri

—

Cover inset

John

Forsberg—

1

0-1

1

Cover—

Star

pattern

Cover

inset

—

The

Solar System

Clyde

Tombaugh,

the

man who

discovered

the

planet

Pluto

Men

County

Puiwif

Lifariry

Ft.

Wayne,

in^ian^

Library of

Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data

Fradin, Dennis

B.

Pluto

/

by Dennis B.

Fradin

p.

cm.

—

(A

nevi/ true

book)

Includes index.

Summary:

Discusses

the

ninth planet,

how

it

was

named,

and

the information

astronomers

have

gathered

about

it.

ISBN

0-51

6-011

75-8

1. Pluto

(Planet)

—

Juvenile

literature.

[1. Pluto

(Planet)]

I. Title.

QB701.F73

1989

89-9925

523.4'82-dc20

CIP

AC

Copyright

®

1 989

by

Childrens Press®,

Inc.

All

rights

reserved. Published simultaneously in

Canada.

Printed

in

the United

States of America.



mBLE

©F

CONTENT:

The

Twinkling

Stars of

Nighttinne

...5

Our

Daytime

Star,

the Sun...

7

The

Planets...

9

How

People

Learned

About

the

Solar

System

...

15

Uranus and

Neptune

Are

Discovered

...

20

The

Search

for

a

Ninth

Planet

Begins...

23

Clyde

W.

Tombaugh

Searches

for

Pluto...

27

Tombaugh

Discovers

Pluto ...

31

What

Is It

Like on

Pluto?

...35

Are There

More

Planets?

...42

Words

You

Should

Know...

46

Index...

47



mE

TWINKUNG

STAIR:

©F

NDGIHlTTi,

Have

you

ever looked

at

the sky

on

a

clear

night?

If

so,

you

have seen

nnany

twinkling points

of

light.

They

are

called stars.

The nighttime

stars

look

like

points of

light

because

they

are

so

very far

away

from

us.

In

fact, stars

are

giant

balls

of

hot,

glowing

gas. The

hottest stars

are

blue-white.

Their surfaces



are

at

a

temperature

of

over

55,000°

F.

If

our

world

were

that

hot,

it

would

soon

burn

up.

The

red

stars

are

the

coolest.

Their

surfaces

are

at

a

temperature

of

about

5,500°

F,

which

is

still

plenty

hot.

Do

you

know

why

stars

twinkle? The

reason

is

that

we

see

them through

our

world's

air. Our

air

plays

tricks

with

the starlight

and

makes it

jump

around.

We

see

that

as

twinkling.

6



mi

SON

One star really does

look like

a

giant ball

of

hot, glowing

gas.

That

star

is

in our

daytime

sky.

We

call

it

the Sun.

The

Sun

ights

and

heats

our world.

Our

Sun is not

really

a



The

Sun

is a

star.

very

special star.

Many

of

the

stars

in

the

night

sky

are

bigger

than

the

Sun.

Many

of

them

are

hotter.

The

Sun

only

looks like

the

biggest

and

hottest

star

because

it

is

the

closest

one

to

us.

8



THE

PLANIETS

A

few objects

in

the

sky

look

like

stars

but

are

different in sonne

ways.

For

one

thing,

they

nnove

differently

than

the

stars.

For

another,

they

don't

twinkle.

These

objects

are the Sun's

planets.

A

planet

is

a

heavenly

body

that

orbits,

or

moves

around,

a

star.

The

planets move

differently

than

the stars

because

the

planets

are

moving

around the Sun.

9



Jupiter

Venus

E^rth

^Ji

^i^m^

The planets

don't

twinkle

because

they

don't

shine

by

their

own

light.

Instead,

the

planets

reflect the

sunlight.

Our air

doesn't

play tricks

with

the

reflected

light

of

the

planets,

as it

does

with

starlight.

10



Saturn

Uranus

<>

'^i

w»r

The Sun

and

its planets

are

the

main

objects

in

what is called

the

Solar

System.

The

Solar

System

can

be

thought of

as

the

Sun

and

its

family of

objects.

Moons

(objects

that orbit

most

of

the

planets)

are other

major



members

of

the

Solar

System.

Five planets

are

bright

enough

to

be seen

easily

with

just our

eyes.

They

are

the

planets

Mercury,

Venus,

Mars,

Jupiter,

and

Top

to

bottom:

Mercury,

Saturn,

Jupiter



An

artist's view of

ttie

Viking

spacecraft

expioring

Mars.

The red

pianet

was named after

the

Roman

god

of

war (right).

16

For

example,

the

red

planet

reminded

them

of

blood,

and

blood

reminded

them of

war.

As a

result,

ancient

people

thought

the

red planet

was the

god

of

war.

We

still

call that

planet

Mars,

after

the

Roman

god

of

war.



.,,'-,

^'

» ~i

i'T^'*

•'^**'

Y*/*'

**

- 7 -

o

The

Granger

Collection,

New York

Nicolaus Copernicus

(left)

lived

from 1473

to 1543.

In

his

manuscript (above)

Copernicus showed

that the Sun

was

the

center

of the solar system

and all

the

planets moved

around the Sun.

Two astronomers

helped

people

learn the truth

about

the

Solar

System.

One was

Nicolaus Copernicus of

Poland. Copernicus realized

that

Earth

is

a

planet.

He

realized

that

Earth and the

17



TDe

Granger Collecllon,

New York

Galileo

Galilei

lived

from 1564

to

1642.

He was

the first astronomer to

use

a

telescope

to

study

ttie

heavens.

18

Other

planets

orbit the

Sun.

And

he

realized

that

the

Sun

is a

star.

The

other

astronomer

was

Galileo

of

Italy.

Galileo

was

the

first

astronomer

to

use

a

telescope.

Galileo

studied

the

planets

with



his

telescope.

He

discovered

four

moons

of

Jupiter.

And

he

saw

Saturn's

rings,

although

to

him

they

looked

like

handles.

Galileo

also

learned

a

lot

about

gravity— {he

force

that

attracts

heavenly

bodies

to

each

other. The

Sun is

so big

that

its

gravity

keeps

the planets

from

flying

away.

Earth's

gravity

keeps the

Moon

from

flying

off,

and

holds

us

down

to

the

ground.



Sir

William

Herschel

lived

from

1738

to

1822.

He

used

a

reflecting

telescope

(right)

to

study

the

stars.

UlRANyS

AND

NIEPTUNI

APP

DISCOVERED

20

By

the

1700s

there

were

still

just

six

known

planets

—

Mercury, Venus,

Earth,

Mars,

Jupiter, and

Saturn.

In

1781

the

English

astrononner

William Hersche



was

viewing

the

stars

witin

his

telescope.

He

saw

what

looked

like

a

small

green

ball.

It

didn't

twinkle,

and

it nnoved

differently

than

the stars

when

viewed

over

many

nights.

Herschel

had

discovered

the

seventh planet.

It

was

named

Uranus.

In

1986

Voyager Xook these

photographs of

Uranus

from

a

distance

of

1.3

million miles.



There

was

something

strange

about

the

way

Uranus

moved.

It

wobbled.

Some

force

seemed

to

be

pulling

at

it.

Astronomers

thought the force

might

be

the

gravity of

an

eighth

planet.

Some

astronomers

used

mathematics

to

figure

where

the eighth

planet

might

be

found.

And

some

searched

the

sky

for

it.

The

eighth

planet

was

finally

found

in

1846.

It

was

named

Neptune.



Artist's

painting

of

Neptune and

its largest

moon

Triton

TIHIE

SEARCH

FOIR A

m

PLANET

Bl

Soon after Neptune

was

discovered

in

1846,

astronomers

began

thinking

about

a

nintin

planet.

Neither

Uranus

nor

23



24

Neptune

was

moving as it

sliouid.

Sometining

seemed

to

be

pulling

at

Neptune

from

the

outside. And

something

besides

Neptune

still

seemed

to

be

pulling

at

Uranus.

It

appeared

that

there might

be

one

or

more

additional

planets.

Several

astronomers

worked

on

finding

the

ninth

planet.

Percival

Lowell,

who

had

built

Lowell

Observatory

in

Arizona

in



Percival Lowell

lived

from

1855

to 1916.

He

was

the

founder

and

first

director of the

Lowell

Observatory

in

Flagstaff,

Arizona.

1894,

was

a

leader

of

this

search.

Lowell

was famous

for

his

studies

of

the

planet

Mars. He also

predicted

where

a

ninth

planet

could

be found.

Lowell

Observatory

25



The

Lowell

Observatory

began

its

search

for

the

ninth

planet in

1905.

Percival

Lowell

ran

this

search until

his

death

in

1916.

After

Percival

Lowell's

death, the

observatory's

planet

hunt

came

to

a

standstill

for

thirteen

years.

26



CLYDE

Wo

TOMBAUOy

SEARCHES

FOR

PLOT©

Lowell

Observatory

resumed

its

planet

search

in

the

spring

of

1929.

This

time

Clyde

W. Tombaugh

was

the observatory's

planet

hunter.

Born

in

Illinois

in

1906,

Tombaugh

was just

twenty-three

years

old.

He

had

not

yet

been

to

27



Clyde

W.

Tombaugh

college. But

he

knew

a

lot

about

astronomy

and

telescopes,

and

he was

willing

to

spend

thousands

of

hours

on the project.

Tombaugh

used

a

special

telescope

for

his

28



search.

It

took

pictures

of

large

regions of the

sky.

Tombaugh

photographed

the same

region

on

different nights.

He

compared

the

photos

in

a

special

machine.

The

machine

would

help him

spot

an

object

that

moved

among

the

stars

from

night

to

night.

Such

an object

might

be

a

planet

orbiting

the

Sun.

Some

astronomers

thought

Tombaugh's

search



30

was

hopeless.

One

even

told

him,

Young

man,

I

am

afraid

you

are

wasting

your

time.

If

there

were

more

planets

to

be

found,

they

would have

been

found

long

before

this.

Tombaugh

himself later

said

that

his

search was

like looking

for

a

needle

somewhere in

a

large

haystack.

But

week

after

week he

looked for

a new

planet,

which

people

called

Planet

X.

In

science,

X

means

the unknown.



TOMBAUOy

OiSCOVEIRS

PLUTOS

On

the

afternoon

of

February

18,

1930,

Clyde

Tombaugh

was

studying

sky

photos

taken

that

January.

He

found

a

very

A

1987

photograph

of

Clyde W.

Tombaugh

with his

handmade

telescope at

his

home

in

Las Cruces,

New Mexico.

31



32

dim

object

that

had

changed

position.

Very

excited,

Tombaugh

went

to

the

head

of Lowell

Observatory.

I

have

found

your

Planet X

Tonnbaugh

told

him.

Tombaugh's

discovery

proved

to be

the ninth

planet.

This

news

excited

the world.

People began

suggesting

names for

the

new

planet.

An

eleven-year-old

English

girl

named

Venetia

Burney

thought

Pluto



Pluto

was the Greek

and

Roman

god

of

the

dead.

would

be

a

good

name.

Pluto

was

the Greek and

Roman

god

of

the

dead.

He

ruled over

a

dark,

cold

underworld. The Lowell

-

Observatory

staff

liked

the

name

because

the planet

was

in

a

dark,

cold

region

far

from

the

Sun.

Pluto

33



was

chosen

as

the

new

planet's

official

name.

Some

people

living

today

remember

being

taught

that

there

are

eight

planets

in

the

Solar

System.

They went to

school

before 1930.

After

Pluto

was

discovered,

school

textbooks

raised

the

total

to

nine

planets.

Some

books even

said

there

are

at

least nine

planets,

in

case

more are

found

34



THE

SOLAR

SYSTEM

AS

SEEN LOOKING

TOWARD EARTH

FROM

THE

MOON

HAl

iS

IT

UKI

Astronomers

have

learned

some

facts

about

Pluto

since its

discovery.

One

interesting

fact is

Pluto's

great

distance

from

the Sun. Pluto's

average

distance

from the

Sun is

35



its

year

is

88

earth-days

long.

Our

Earth

orbits

the

Sun

in

36574

days. Pluto,

the

outermost

planet,

takes

about

248

earth-years

to

orbit

the

Sun.

Since

the

time

that

George

Washington

was alive

in

the

late

1700s,

less than

a

year

has

passed

on

Pluto.

Pluto is

the farthest

planet from the Sun.

It takes

248

earth-years

for Pluto

to

orbit the Sun

one

time.



Astronomer James

W.

Christy examined

this

photograph

of

Pluto.

He

determined

that

the

bulge

shown

in the

dark

area was

really

a

moon orbiting

the planet.

probably

the

coldest

of

the

nine known

planets.

Pluto

has

one

known

moon,

named

Charon.

It

was

discovered

in

1978

by

James

W.

Christy,

an

American

astronomer.

41



ARE

THERE

DIRE

PLANETS?

Something

besides

Pluto

seems

to be

tugging at

Uranus and

Neptune.

Some

astronomers

think

it is

a

tenth planet. It has

been

called

Planet

X,

as

Pluto

was

named before

it

was

discovered.

Perhaps

there

is

no

Planet

X.

Or

perhaps

there

are

two

unknown

planets.

Any

planet

beyond

Pluto

42



Astronomers

believe

that

this

photograph

indicates

that

there is

another

solar

system

50

light-years

away

from Earth.

would

be

very far

away

and

dim.

Finding it

could

be

very hard. But

nnany

astronomers

are

looking

for

Planet

X.

Some

are

studying

old

sky

photos

to

see

if they

can

spot

it.



Computers

receiving images

from

the International

Ultraviolet Explorer

satellite reproduced this

photograph

of

the

Large Magellanic

Cloud.

44

Others

are

taking

new

photos

on

which

Planet

X

could appear.

The

discovery

of

a

tenth

planet would

be

an

exciting

day

for

astrononny.

And

what

a

day

it

would

be

for

the

discoverer



Clyde Tombaugh

was

a self-taught

astronomer in Kansas

when

he

discovered Pluto.

His discovery

of Pluto

earned him

a

scholarship to

the

University of Kansas.

There

v\/ould

be

only one

problem.

We

would

have

to

learn

a

new

planet

total,

just

as

people

did

in

1930

when

Clyde

Tombaugh

discovered

a

frozen

world

FACTS

ABOUT

PLUTO



Average

Distance

from

Sun—

About

3,660,000.000

(3

billion,

660

million)

miles

Closest

Approach to

Earth

—

About 2,700,000,000

(2

billion,

700

million)

miles

D/ameter—

About 2,000

miles

Length of

Day—About

6

earth-days

Length

of

Yea/-

-About

248

earth-years

Temperatures—

About

-350°

F

Atmosphere—

Methane

Number of

Moons—

One

known moon,

Charon

Weight

of an

Object

on

Pluto

That

Would

Weigh

100

Pounds

on

Earth—

Just

a

few pounds

Average Speed

as

Pluto

Orbits

the

Sun—

3

miles

per

second

ORDS

YOU SHOULD

KNl©

ancient(AIN

•shent) — very

old

astronomer(ast

•RAH

•nih

•mer)

—

a

person

who

studies

stars,

planets,

and

other heavenly bodies

attract(uh •IRAKI)

—

to make sonnething

conne

closer; to

pull

something

toward itself

biHion(BILL •yun)-a thousand million

(1

,000,000,000)

Charon(CHAIR

•un) —

Pluto's moon,

discovered in

1978

diameter(dye

•AM

•ih •ter)

—

the

distance

on

a

straight

line

through

the center of

a

sphere

Earth(ERIH) —

the

planet

(the

third

from the

Sun)

on

which

we

live

gravity(GRAV^ih

•tee) —

the force that

holds things

down

to

a

heavenly

body

or

that

pulls

objects toward

each other

icebergdCE

•berg)

— a

huge

chunk of

ice found

floating

in

the

ocean

mathematics

(math

•ih

•MAI •ix)

—

the

science

of

numbers

and

their

use

million(MILL»yun)-a

thousand

thousand



(1,000,000)

Neptune(NEP

•toon)

—

the

eighth

planet

from

the Sun

observatory

(ah

b

•ZER'va

•tor

•ee)

—

a building

containing

telescopes and

other instruments

for

studying

heavenly

bodies

orbit(OR

•

bit)

—

to travel

around an object in

space

outermost(OUT

•

er

•

mohst)

—

the farthest

out

or

away

planet(PLAN

•

it)

—

a

large

object

that

orbits

a

star; the

Sun has

nine

planets

Pluto(PLOO^toh)

—

the ninth

planet

from

the Sun

reflect(ree

•FLEKT)—

to throw

back

Solar

System(SO

•

ler

SISS^tim)-the

Sun and

its

family of

objects

star(STAHR) —

a giant ball

of hot, glowing

gases

Sun(SUHN)

—

the yellow

star

that

is the

closest star

to

Earth

telescope(TEL •ih^ skohp)

—

an

instrument that

makes distant

objects

look

closer

underworlddJN^der

•wirid)

—

in ancientGreek and

Roman

stories,

the

place

beneath

the earth where the

spirits of

the

dead

go

Uranus(YOO

•rin

•iss)

—

the

seventh

planet

from

the

Sun

wobble(WAH

•bill)

—

to

move

unsteadily

from

side to

side

NDEX

Charon, 41

gravity, 1

9,

22

Christy,

James

W.,

41

Herschel,

William,

20-21

Copernicus,

Nicolaus, 1 7

Jupiter,

1 2, 1

9,

20

Earth,

1

3,

1

5,

1

7,

20,

37, 38, 39,

Lowell

Observatory,

24-25,

26,

40

27

Galileo,

18

Lowell,

Percival,

24



Mars,

12, 16,

20

Mercury,

1

2,

20,

36

Saturn,

1 2,

1

9,

20

Moon

(of

Earth) 1

9,

38-39

Solar

System,

1

1

,

1

2,

1

5-1

9,

34

nnoons (of

other

planets),

11,19,

stars,

5-6,

9,

29

41

Sun,

7-8,

9,

11,15,

18, 19,

29,

Neptune,

22, 23,

24, 40, 42

36,

37

orbit,

36

telescope,

1

8,

1

9,

21

,

28-29,

39,

PlanetX,

30,

32,42-44

40

planets,

9-1

3,

36,

38

Tombaugh,

Clyde

W.,

27, 40,

45

Pluto,

32-34, 35-36,

37,

38-41

,

Uranus,

21

, 22, 23,

24, 40,

42

42,45

Venus,

12,

20

About

the

Author

Dennis Fradin attended Northwestern

University

on

a

partial

creative

scholarship and was

graduated in

1

967.

His

previous

books

include

the Young

People's Stories

of Our States

series

for

Childrens Press, and

Bad

Luck

Tony for Prentice-Hall.

In the True

book series Dennis

has

written

about astronomy,

farming, comets,

archaeology, movies,

space colonies, the space lab,

explorers,

and

pioneers.

He

is married

and

the father

of

three

children.

pluto - dennis b. fradin - 1989

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