Petite but potent, Pluto was named for the maiden-snatching, shadow-dwelling god of the underworld. 24K-Production – stock.adobe.com Petite but potent, Pluto was discovered in 1930.

After thinking about the news and reflecting on her knowledge of mythology, she said Pluto, the god of the distant, cold underworld, was an appropriate name for this dark and gloomy place.

(Pluto is named for the god of the underworld.) The huge size of Charon (750 miles or 1,200 kilometers in diameter) sometimes leads scientists to refer to Pluto and Charon as a double dwarf planet ...

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, an American astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. Cold, dark and distant, it was named after the Roman god of the underworld . In Greek ...