Profile:
Mass: 13,050,000,000,000 billion kg (0.00218 x Earth)
Diameter: 2,368 km (+- 20km)
Known Moons: 5
Notable Moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx
Orbit Distance: 5,874,000,000 km (39.26 x Earth's Distance to the Sun)
Orbit Period: 246.04 Earth years
Surface Temperature: -229°C
Pluto was once considered to be the ninth and most distant planet from the sun. However, it is now no longer known to be a planet, but instead a dwarf planet. It is the largest known dward planet in the solar system and also one of the largest known members of the Kuiper Belt - a zone beyond the orbit of Neptune thought to be populated by hundreds of thousands of rocky and icy bodies.
Pluto Information
Missions:
10 Need-to-Know Things About Pluto:
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If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel and dwarf planet Pluto would be about the size of the head of a pin.
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Pluto orbits our sun, a star, at an average distance of 3.7 billion miles (5.9 billion kilometers) or 39.5 AU.
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One day on Pluto takes about 153 hours. That's the time it takes for Pluto to rotate or spin once. Pluto makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Plutonian time) in about 248 Earth years.
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It is thought that Pluto has a rocky core surrounded by a mantle of water ice with other ices coating its surface.
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Pluto has five known moons. Pluto is sometimes called a double-planet system due to the fact that its moon Charon is quite large and orbits close to its parent planet.
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There are no known rings around Pluto.
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Pluto has a thin, tenuous atmosphere that expands when it comes closer to the sun and collapses as it moves farther away -- similar to a comet.
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NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is the first mission sent to encounter the Pluto-system and other members of the Kuiper Belt.
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Scientists do not think Pluto can support life as we know it. Although, some scientists believe it is possible Pluto could possess a hidden ocean under its surface.
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Pluto was considered a planet from 1930, when it was first discovered, until 2006. The discovery of similar-sized worlds deeper in the distant Kuiper Belt sparked a debate which resulted in a new official definition of a planet. The new definition did not include Pluto.
New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) obtained these three images of Pluto between July 1-3 ,2015, as the spacecraft closed in on its July 14 encounter with the dwarf planet and its moons. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL
The mission's first map of Pluto is in approximate true color. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
New Horizons: Release of Pluto images next step after probe's historic flyby
July 15, 2015
The Pluto mission completes the reconnaissance of the classical solar system, and it makes the United States the first nation to send a space probe to every planet from Mercury to Pluto.
The flyby came exactly 50 years after the Mariner 4 probe accomplished the first flyby of Mars, which sent back the first-ever photos of another planet taken close up from space.
Pluto Mission: NASA’s New Horizons ‘Phones Home’ After Blackout
July 14, 2015
NASA has re-established contact with its New Horizons spacecraft after a planned communications blackout as the probe completes humankind’s first flyby of Pluto.
Mission managers who were packed into the New Horizons “mission control” room anxiously waiting to hear from the spacecraft broke into applause.
The probe had spent more than 12 hours out of contact while it collected data from Pluto and its five moons.
How Big Is Pluto? New Horizons Settles Decades-Long Debate
July 13, 2015
NASA’s New Horizons mission has answered one of the most basic questions about Pluto—its size.
Mission scientists have found Pluto to be 1,473 miles (2,370 kilometers) in diameter, somewhat larger than many prior estimates. Images acquired with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were used to make this determination. This result confirms what was already suspected: Pluto is larger than all other known solar system objects beyond the orbit of Neptune.
“The size of Pluto has been debated since its discovery in 1930. We are excited to finally lay this question to rest,” said mission scientist Bill McKinnon, Washington University, St. Louis.
Latest News About Pluto
With a total of 67 known moons — including four large moons known as the Galilean satellites — Jupiter almost qualifies as a solar system unto itself. Most of the moons of Jupiter are small, with about 50 of the satellites being less than 6.2 miles in diameter. In January 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered four of Jupiter’s moons — now called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Galileo’s discovery was pivotal point in the history of astronomy as his observation revealed that not all celestial bodies revolved around the Earth. Until that time, Earth was thought to be the center of the universe.
To learn more about Jupiter's moons, click on the button below!
Our solar system's ruling giant planet Jupiter and 3 of its 4 large Galilean moons are captured on January 24. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL/DLR
Pluto's Moons
