Yes, there were rumours about the death or destruction about Pluto. But the scientific truth is that, it has only been affected by depreciation and has become so little as to be categorized as a dwarf planet. So it is no more officially a planet now, but is dubbed as a dwarf or mini planet.
Back in August 2006 astronomers voted to shake up the Solar System, and the number of planets dropped from nine to eight. Pluto was the one cast aside. There was some outcry that Pluto had been destroyed in an instant and was no longer important, and the reverberations were most keenly felt across America.
Pluto was relegated in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created a new definition for planets and decided Pluto did not fit the bill.
Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet because, while it is large enough to have become spherical, it is not big enough to exert its orbital dominance and clear the neighborhood surrounding its orbit.
"If Pluto disappeared, it certainly wouldn't have an effect on Earth," says Sarah Hörst, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University. Gravity depends on mass, and the force it exerts decreases over distance. Pluto is too tiny, and too far, to affect Earth.
Potential for Life
The surface of Pluto is extremely cold, so it seems unlikely that life could exist there. At such cold temperatures, water, which is vital for life as we know it, is essentially rock-like. Pluto's interior is warmer, however, and some think there could even be an ocean deep inside.
No human on Earth has ever experienced a Pluto return because our life spans are much shorter than the 248-year cycle of this mighty planet. However, empires and nations have experienced them — and many have seen multiple Pluto returns.
Pluto is officially classified as a dwarf planet.
Fun Fact: Russia has more surface area than the planet Pluto. Pluto's surface area is 16.7 million square kilometres. Russia is just short of 17.1 million square kilometres.
As of March 23, 2023, Pluto has ended its 15-year jaunt in Capricorn and is now orbiting in the change-focused sign of Aquarius for the first time since 1798.
In 1953, Soviet Russian astronomer Ivan I. Putilin suggested that Phaeton was destroyed due to centrifugal forces, giving it a diameter of approximately 6,880 kilometers (slightly larger than Mars' diameter of 6,779 km) and a rotational speed of 2.6 hours.
Tholen (University of Hawaii) is right, Pluto was probably hit by a small Kuiper Belt object in the not-too-distant past. One consequence of that collision, he argues, is seen in the planet's motion — Pluto and its satellite Charon now waltz around each other in slightly out-of-round orbits.
Pluto's brief life as a planet was over, dead at age 76. Rest in Peace signs for Pluto near the Smithsonian. Along with Eris and Ceres, an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter, Pluto was reclassified as a “dwarf planet.” (In 2008, the IAU also added Makemake and Haumea to its list of recognized dwarf planets.)
It may be the biggest planet in our Solar System but it would still need more mass to turn into a second Sun. Jupiter is often called a 'failed star' because, although it is mostly hydrogen like most normal stars, it is not massive enough to commence thermonuclear reactions in its core and thus become a 'real star'.
so pluto is bigger than Australia. Even the picture is wrong, Pluto is only 1400 miles in diameter Australia is 9000 miles wide....
Australia is the planet's sixth largest country after Russia, Canada, China, the USA, and Brazil.
By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and the efforts of Russian explorers, developing into the Russian Empire, which remains the third-largest empire in history.
Uranus holds the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in the Solar System: a very chilly -224℃. The temperature on Neptune is still very cold, of course – usually around -214℃ – but Uranus beats that. The reason why Uranus is so cold is nothing to do with its distance from the Sun.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and Earth's closest planetary neighbor. Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. Its thick atmosphere is full of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and it has clouds of sulfuric acid.
Our solar system is made up of a star—the Sun—eight planets, 146 moons, a bunch of comets, asteroids and space rocks, ice, and several dwarf planets, such as Pluto. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
So will Pluto and Neptune ever collide? No! You can see this in the image below, which shows a view as seen from the side as the planets orbit around the Sun. Most planets only make small excursions in the vertical and radial directions, but Pluto is an exception.
The exploration of Pluto began with the arrival of the New Horizons probe in July 2015, though proposals for such a mission had been studied for many decades. There are no plans as yet for a follow-up mission, though follow-up concepts have been studied.
New Horizons was the first spacecraft to encounter Pluto, a relic from the formation of the solar system. By the time it reached the Pluto system, the spacecraft had traveled farther away and for a longer time period (more than nine years) than any previous deep space spacecraft ever launched.