Pluto Size report

In the vast universe, moving celestial bodies attract and revolve around each other to form a celestial body system. The celestial body systems where the earth is located from small to large are the Earth-Moon system, the solar system, the Milky Way, and the observable universe. The solar system is composed of the sun, planets and their satellites, asteroids, etc.

Currently, there are eight known planets in the solar system. People wonder why Pluto, which is also in the solar system, was excluded from the category of planets and reduced to a dwarf planet? As early as more than a decade ago, astronomers discovered some differences between Pluto and other planets in the solar system.

Pluto, asteroid number 134340, is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto was the first Kuiper Belt object to be discovered and is the most giant and second most massive dwarf planet known in the solar system. The following post explains more details about Pluto size.

Pluto Size Basics

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto as the ninth planet. Pluto-like objects discovered in the Kuiper Belt after 1992 began to challenge its planetary status. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) formally defined the concept of planets in 2006, excluded Pluto from the ranks of planets, and reclassified it as a dwarf planet. Pluto has five known natural satellites: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. These moons may have formed when Pluto collided with other Kuiper Belt objects billions of years ago.

Pluto ranks 9th in volume and 10th in mass among the celestial bodies orbiting directly around the sun. Pluto is the largest trans-Neptunian object, second only to Eris in mass. Like other Kuiper Belt objects, Pluto is mainly composed of rock and ice, and its mass is relatively small, only 1/6 of the Moon's mass and 1/3 of the Moon's volume. Although Pluto is still not large enough to be qualified as a full-grown planet, it remains one of the most well-known non-planetary bodies in the solar system.

Basic data for Pluto

Radius, diameter, and circumference Of Pluto

• The diameter of Pluto is 1,473 miles (2,370 kilometers), about two-thirds the diameter of Earth's moon. Eris is 1,445 miles (2,326 km) in diameter.
• Its radius is about 1,185 km (737 miles), which is the same at its poles and equator.
• The circumference of Pluto is 4,627 miles (7,445 km).

Density, mass, and volume Of Pluto

• The tiny body has a mass of 1.31 x 10²² kilograms, about two-tenths of a percent of Earth's.
• The volume of Pluto is 1.5 billion cubic miles (6.4 billion cubic km).
• Pluto's small size and low mass mean that it has a density of 1.86 grams per cubic centimeter, about only 40 percent of Earth's density.

Orbit and Rotation of Pluto

Pluto periodically moves inside Neptune's orbit but does not collide due to resonance with Neptune's orbit. Based on the average distance, it takes 5.5 hours for sunlight to reach Pluto. Pluto's orbital period is about 248 years.

Its orbital properties are very different from those of a planet. The planet must be orbiting the star, be approximately circular, and have sufficient gravitational force. But scientists finally proved that Pluto's orbit is a flat ellipse, with an inclination of 17 degrees to the solar system's ecliptic plane. When Pluto travels to the perihelion, it has entered the orbit of Neptune.

Summary

Pluto's distance from Earth makes studying and exploring in-depth difficult. On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons space probe flew by the Pluto system, the first and only attempt to explore Pluto directly. This successful detection has provided a lot of information for human exploration of Pluto and the solar system.