Key facts
- Scale fact
- 2,380 kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Rock, water ice, nitrogen and methane ices
- Temperature
- ~44 K mean surface
Pluto
2,380 kmdiameter
Visual creditNew Horizons 2015 / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons
Details
Pluto is an icy dwarf planet with a surprisingly active surface and atmosphere. New Horizons found nitrogen-ice glaciers flowing across its plains and blue hazes in its sky.
New Horizons found a roughly 1,000-kilometer-wide basin, Sputnik Planitia, filled with nitrogen-rich ice that overturns and flows like a glacier. Water-ice blocks stand as mountains and isolated hills within the softer volatile ice, while crater-poor areas show that parts of the surface have been renewed relatively recently.
Pluto’s thin atmosphere is dominated by nitrogen with methane and carbon monoxide, and contains layered photochemical haze. Seasonal sublimation and condensation connect that atmosphere to the surface ices, tying Pluto’s geology to its climate.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Pluto on Wikipedia
- Universe journey
- Solar System
Size neighbors
Objects near Pluto on the scale
Sources
References for Pluto
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Pluto — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (New Horizons 2015 / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker, Public domain)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.