Menus

Catalogues

Tools and Links

eSky © copyright
Mark Fisher
1999-2008

Pluto

Proper Name
Pluto

Sidereal Period
249 years
(90,777.6 days)

Mean Distance from the Sun
5,913.49 million km
39.5 AU

Sidereal Day
6d 9h 18m

Diameter
2,284 km

Mean Surface Temperature
-220°C

Moons
Charon

For Pluto's current position, see the Planet Wheel

Frosted with methane ice, tiny Pluto lies so far out in the depths of the Solar System that sunlight takes more than four hours to reach it.

Size Comparison of Pluto
Pluto's diameter is just 2,284km, which is less than a fifth that of Earth. In fact, the planet Pluto is smaller than many of the Solar System's moons, including Earth's. Surface map courtesy Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. All rights reserved.

The most distant of the Sun's family of nine planets, and the most mysterious. It pursues a wildly eccentric orbit, sometimes even coming nearer to the Sun than Neptune.

No detailed map of Pluto exists, so this diagram of its surface is necessarily conjectural. It is broadly consistent, though, with the limited observations it has been possible to make from Earth.

The view from Pluto of its snowball moon, Charon. Compared to its parent planet, Charon is huge - more than half Pluto's diameter - and for this reason Pluto is sometimes referred to as a 'double planet'.

Indexes

Related Entries