Jeffrey Hannan, age 10, of Cogan Station, Pa., for his question:

HOW FAR AWAY IS THE PLANET PLUTO?

Suppose we traveled to Pluto at 100 m.p.h. If we wentin a straight line, we might get there in about 3,000 years.  But when we arrived, Pluto would be somewhere else. Thisis because both planets are orbiting around the sun.

The earth makes 248 yearly orbits while Pluto makes only one. So their positions change from moment to moment. Right now, the distance to Pluto is about 2,700 million miles. Sometimes it is as far away as 4,660 million miles.