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Plutonium is a very rare element, found in the Earth’s crust, and was discovered by a team of scientists in California in 1940. It was named after Pluto – a planet at the time that was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006. They kept the discovery a secret until 1946 because the element can be used for nuclear explosions, and the second World War was happening at the time. It was used to create the second nuclear weapon dropped in Japan during World War II, called the ‘Fat Man’.

Plutonium has also been used in spacecraft as a source of power and heat, recently on the Curiosity Mars rover launched in 2011.