Size: The New Horizons mission has verified that Pluto is the largest of the dwarf planets with a diameter 2,370 kilometres give or take a 20 km margin of error.
Composition: There is still lot to learn from New Horizons about Pluto’s exact internal structure, but we know it is comprised of water ice around a rocky core with a surface layer of Nitrogen and Methane ices.
Distance from Sun: Pluto’s orbit takes it between 4.4 billion km (29.7 AU) at its closest point and 7.3 billion km (48.9 AU) from the Sun with an average distance of 5.9 billion km (39.3 AU). 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) = 149,597,871 km, the average distance of the Earth from the Sun.
Moons: Pluto has five moons, in order of size they are Charon with a diameter of 1,208 km, Hydra (45 km), Nix (35 km), Kerberos and Styx.
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As a bit of a disclaimer the initial sizes of the smaller moons are based on early information from New Horizons which will likely be refined and in the case of Pluto’s internal structure this is one possible model based on what is currently known.
Sources: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/, http://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-big-is-pluto-new-horizons-settles-decades-long-debate & https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Internal_Structure_of_Pluto.jpg
any chance of putting the measurements in miles for those of us who live in the US and don’t metric?
Just use your calculator and divide the kilometers by 1.6 and you get the approximate miles.
1Km is roughly five eighth’s of a mile so 2370×0.625 = 1481 . Quick history lesson for you, USA HAS USED METRIC MEASUREMENTS since 1865 act of congress. The US mile is based on meter and Kilo supplied by France. US has been using metric measurements for ???years. As of 2017, you really should know more about US history and the metric system
I thought pluto was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo small, that it could fit in your hand
do you mean pluto the dog from mickey mouse
just find a distance conversion website
hello there .
Sometimes I feel sorry to know so little always I have been curious of our system to understand what make us but I have a great believe that few people out there NASA have and seen and know too much and we can not even image if we have a great imagination 🙂 human body a way is created is connected to the numbers of the solar system , I’m looking to find out anything that can make me understand what make us , thank you
i never knew pluto took 249.50 years to orbit the sun
Really useful
Pluto is soooooooo small,it can fit inside Earth 2135 times
It is a good brain teaser to observe and study terrestrials as a pastime but the gamut of the whole matter lies in the INFERENCIiNG. All of us without exception, do infer in a primitive way while time waits and never has room for guesses. To be precise is to be the one to independently say it with absolute precision and impeccable knowledge. Stay cool on Pluto.
Pluto is soo small it can fit inside Earth 25 times
How much time does it take to reach each planet going the speed of light?
Interesting, I never knew it would take that long for Pluto to orbit around the sun.