Question

How many miles are between Pluto and the sun?

Answer 1

Hint: Pluto is a dwarf planet that lies in the Kuiper Belt, an area full of icy bodies and other dwarf planets out past Neptune. Pluto is very small. Mostly in space, the distance is measured in the astronomical unit or light-years. We can also find the distance of a planet from the sun if we know the time taken by sunlight to reach the planet.

Complete step by step answer:
Step 1: the light takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto from the sun. We can calculate the distance from the sun to Pluto with the help of distance-time relations.
Step 2: express the relationship between time, speed, and distance.
$\therefore c={\displaystyle \frac{d}{t}}$ , where $c$ is the speed of light, $d$ is the distance from the sun to Pluto, and $t$ is the time taken by light to reach Pluto from the sun.
Step 3: since we need the distance in miles, therefore, substitute the value of speed in the unit of miles/hour. The speed of light is 670,616,629 miles/hour.
Step 3: substitute the values $t=5.5hrs$ and $c=670616629miles/hr$
$$\therefore 670616629={\displaystyle \frac{d}{5.5}}$$
$\Rightarrow d=5.5\times 670616629$
$\Rightarrow d=3688391470miles$
Thus, Pluto is 3688391470 miles away from the sun.

Note:
Some facts about Pluto-
-Pluto is about 3.6 billion miles away from the Sun and has five moons.
-Pluto’s atmosphere is thin and composed mostly of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.
-Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, are so similar in size that they orbit each other like a double planet system.