(The Gist of Science Reporter) Did you know? [MAY-2019]

Did you know?

Pluto was discovered in 1930 and assigned as the ninth planet in our solar system. However, in 2006, the status was withdrawn and reassigned as a dwarf planet.
The name Pluto was proposed by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old girl from England. The Student Dust Counter was named in her honour.
By the time we discovered and stripped Pluto of its planet status, the icy object had not completed an entire orbit around the Sun.
Pluto is the largest KBO and the second most massive.
One-third of Pluto is water ice almost equal to three times the water in all our oceans put together. The remaining two-thirds is rock.
It takes 248 earth years for Pluto to orbit around the Sun.
The sunlight on Pluto is as intense as moonlight on Earth.
It takes five hours for the sunlight to reach Pluto (as against 8mins to Earth).
Pluto has a retrograde rotation (opposite to that of the Earth). So, on Pluto the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.
Pluto is a cold planet with an average temperature of about -230oC.
The feeble light on Pluto makes the days appear dark, and one can see stars during the day.
On Pluto, sunrise to sunset is about a week long.
Pluto has a thin atmosphere mostly of nitrogen ice, carbon monoxide and methane.
The surface is rocky and believed to be having cry volcanoes and geysers.