The Icy Dwarf World

Pluto

Pluto is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper Belt, a distant region of icy objects beyond Neptune. It was once classified as the ninth planet in the Solar System.

Pluto has a complex surface made of frozen nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. Despite its small size, it has mountains, plains, glaciers and a thin atmosphere that changes as Pluto travels around the Sun.

Diameter

2,377 km

Day length

6.4 days

Year length

248 years

Moons

Surface landmark

Tombaugh Regio

Pluto's famous heart-shaped region is called Tombaugh Regio. Its western side contains Sputnik Planitia, a vast plain of frozen nitrogen ice that slowly moves like a glacier.

Largest moon

Charon

Charon is unusually large compared with Pluto. The two objects orbit around a point in space located outside Pluto, making them behave almost like a double dwarf-planet system.

Average distance

About 5.9 billion km

Temperature

Around −230°C

Gravity

About 6% of Earth's

Region

Kuiper Belt