Pluto

134340 Pluto

Pluto, imaged by the New Horizons spacecraft, July 2015.[a] The most

prominent feature in the image, the bright, youthful plains

of Tombaugh Regio and Sputnik Planitia, can be seen at right. It

contrasts the darker, cratered terrain of Belton Regio at lower left

Discovery

Discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh

Discovery site Lowell Observatory

Discovery date February 18, 1930

Designations

Designation (134340) Pluto

/ˈpluːtoʊ/ ⓘ
Pronunciation
Named after Pluto

Minor planet category  Dwarf planet

 Trans-Neptunian object

 Kuiper belt object

 Plutino

Adjectives Plutonian /pluːˈtoʊniən/[1]

Symbol (historically astronomical, now

mostly astrological) or (mostly

astrological)

Orbital characteristics[2][b]

Epoch J2000

Earliest precovery date August 20, 1909

Aphelion  49.305 AU

 (7.37593 billion km)

 February 2114

Perihelion  29.658 AU

 (4.43682 billion km)[3]

 (September 5, 1989)[4]

Semi-major axis  39.482 AU

 (5.90638 billion km)

Eccentricity 0.2488

Orbital period (sidereal)  247.94 years[3]

 90,560 d[3]

Orbital period (synodic) 366.73 days[3]

Average orbital speed 4.743 km/s[3]

Mean anomaly 14.53 deg

Inclination  17.16°

 (11.88° to Sun's equator)

Longitude of 110.299°
ascending node

Argument of perihelion 113.834°

Known satellites 5

Physical characteristics

Dimensions 2,376.6±1.6 km (observations consistent

with a sphere, predicted deviations too

small to be observed)[5]

Mean radius  1,188.3±0.8 km[6][5]

 0.1868 Earths

Flattening <1%[7]

Surface area  1.774443×107 km2[c]

 0.035 Earths

Volume  (7.057±0.004)×109 km3[d]

 0.00651 Earths

Mass  (1.303±0.003)×1022 kg[7]

 0.00218 Earths

 0.177 Moons

Mean density 1.854±0.006 g/cm3[6][7]

Surface gravity  0.620 m/s2[e]

 0.063 g

Escape velocity 1.212 km/s[f]

Synodic rotation period  −6.38680 d

 −6 d, 9 h, 17 m, 00 s
[8]

Sidereal rotation period  −6.387230 d

 −6 d, 9 h, 17 m, 36 s

Equatorial 47.18 km/h

rotation velocity

Axial tilt 122.53° (to orbit)[3]

North pole right 132.993°[9]

ascension

North pole declination −6.163°[9]

Albedo 0.52 geometric[3]

0.72 Bond[3]
 Surface temp. min mean max
Kelvin 33 K 44 K (−229 °C) 55 K

Apparent magnitude 13.65[3] to 16.3[10]

(mean is 15.1)[3]

Absolute magnitude (H) −0.44[11]

Angular diameter 0.06″ to 0.11″[3][g]

Atmosphere

Surface pressure 1.0 Pa (2015)[7][12]

Composition by volume Nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide[13]

Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a
ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-
massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian
object by volume, by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper
belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner
planets. Pluto has only one sixth the mass of Earth's moon, and one third its volume.
Pluto has a moderately eccentric and inclined orbit, ranging from 30 to 49 astronomical
units (4.5 to 7.3 billion kilometers; 2.8 to 4.6 billion miles) from the Sun. Light from the
Sun takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its orbital distance of 39.5 AU (5.91 billion km;
3.67 billion mi). Pluto's eccentric orbit periodically brings it closer to the Sun
than Neptune, but a stable orbital resonance prevents them from colliding.
Pluto has five known moons: Charon, the largest, whose diameter is just over half that
of Pluto; Styx; Nix; Kerberos; and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered
a binary system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body,
and they are tidally locked. The New Horizons mission was the first spacecraft to visit
Pluto and its moons, making a flyby on July 14, 2015, and taking detailed
measurements and observations.
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde W. Tombaugh, making it by far the first known
object in the Kuiper belt. It was immediately hailed as the ninth planet, but it was always
the odd object out,[14]: 27 and its planetary status was questioned when it was found to be
much smaller than expected. These doubts increased following the discovery of
additional objects in the Kuiper belt starting in the 1990s, and particularly the more
massive scattered disk object Eris in 2005. In 2006, the International Astronomical
Union (IAU) formally redefined the term planet to exclude dwarf planets such as Pluto.
Many planetary astronomers, however, continue to consider Pluto and other dwarf
planets to be planets.
History
Discovery
Further information: Planets beyond Neptune
 Discovery photographs of Pluto
In the 1840s, Urbain Le Verrier used Newtonian mechanics to predict the position of the
then-undiscovered planet Neptune after analyzing perturbations in the orbit of Uranus.
Subsequent observations of Neptune in the late 19th century led astronomers to
speculate that Uranus's orbit was being disturbed by another planet besides Neptune.[15]
In 1906, Percival Lowell—a wealthy Bostonian who had founded Lowell
Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894—started an extensive project in search of a
possible ninth planet, which he termed "Planet X".[16] By 1909, Lowell and William H.
Pickering had suggested several possible celestial coordinates for such a planet.
[17]
Lowell and his observatory conducted his search, using mathematical calculations
made by Elizabeth Williams, until his death in 1916, but to no avail. Unknown to Lowell,
his surveys had captured two faint images of Pluto on March 19 and April 7, 1915, but
they were not recognized for what they were.[17][18] There are fourteen other
known precovery observations, with the earliest made by the Yerkes Observatory on
August 20, 1909.[19]

Clyde Tombaugh, in Kansas

Percival's widow, Constance Lowell, entered into a ten-year legal battle with the Lowell
Observatory over her husband's legacy, and the search for Planet X did not resume
until 1929.[20] Vesto Melvin Slipher, the observatory director, gave the job of locating
Planet X to 23-year-old Clyde Tombaugh, who had just arrived at the observatory after
Slipher had been impressed by a sample of his astronomical drawings.[20]
Tombaugh's task was to systematically image the night sky in pairs of photographs,
then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. Using
a blink comparator, he rapidly shifted back and forth between views of each of the
plates to create the illusion of movement of any objects that had changed position or
appearance between photographs. On February 18, 1930, after nearly a year of
searching, Tombaugh discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates
taken on January 23 and 29. A lesser-quality photograph taken on January 21 helped
confirm the movement.[21] After the observatory obtained further confirmatory
photographs, news of the discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College
Observatory on March 13, 1930.[17]
One Plutonian year corresponds to 247.94 Earth years;[3] thus, in 2178, Pluto will
complete its first orbit since its discovery.
Name and symbol
The name Pluto came from the Roman god of the underworld; and it is also an epithet
for Hades (the Greek equivalent of Pluto).
Upon the announcement of the discovery, Lowell Observatory received over a thousand
suggestions for names.[22] Three names topped the list: Minerva, Pluto and Cronus.
'Minerva' was the Lowell staff's first choice[23] but was rejected because it had already
been used for an asteroid; Cronus was disfavored because it was promoted by an
unpopular and egocentric astronomer, Thomas Jefferson Jackson See. A vote was then
taken and 'Pluto' was the unanimous choice. To make sure the name stuck, and that the
planet would not suffer changes in its name as Uranus had, Lowell Observatory
proposed the name to the American Astronomical Society and the Royal Astronomical
Society; both approved it unanimously.[14]: 136 [24] The name was published on May 1, 1930.[25]
[26]

The name Pluto had received some 150 nominations among the letters and telegrams
sent to Lowell. The first[h] had been from Venetia Burney (1918–2009), an eleven-year-
old schoolgirl in Oxford, England, who was interested in classical mythology.[14][25] She
had suggested it to her grandfather Falconer Madan when he read the news of Pluto's
discovery to his family over breakfast; Madan passed the suggestion to astronomy
professor Herbert Hall Turner, who cabled it to colleagues at Lowell on March 16, three
days after the announcement.[23][25]
The name 'Pluto' was mythologically appropriate: the god Pluto was one of six surviving
children of Saturn, and the others had already all been chosen as names of major or
minor planets (his brothers Jupiter and Neptune, and his
sisters Ceres, Juno and Vesta). Both the god and the planet inhabited "gloomy" regions,
and the god was able to make himself invisible, as the planet had been for so long.
[28]
The choice was further helped by the fact that the first two letters of Pluto were the
initials of Percival Lowell; indeed, 'Percival' had been one of the more popular
suggestions for a name for the new planet.[23][29] Pluto's planetary symbol ⟨ ⟩ was then
created as a monogram of the letters "PL".[30] This symbol is rarely used in astronomy
anymore,[i] though it is still common in astrology. However, the most
common astrological symbol for Pluto, occasionally used in astronomy as well, is an orb
(possibly representing Pluto's invisibility cap) over Pluto's bident ⟨ ⟩, which dates to
the early 1930s.[34][j]
The name 'Pluto' was soon embraced by wider culture. In 1930, Walt Disney was
apparently inspired by it when he introduced for Mickey Mouse a canine companion
named Pluto, although Disney animator Ben Sharpsteen could not confirm why the
name was given.[38] In 1941, Glenn T. Seaborg named the newly
created element plutonium after Pluto, in keeping with the tradition of naming elements
after newly discovered planets, following uranium, which was named after Uranus,
and neptunium, which was named after Neptune.[39]
Most languages use the name "Pluto" in various transliterations.[k] In Japanese, Houei
Nojiri suggested the calque Meiōsei (冥王星, "Star of the King (God) of the
Underworld"), and this was borrowed into Chinese and Korean. Some languages of
India use the name Pluto, but others, such as Hindi, use the name of Yama, the God of
Death in Hinduism.[40] Polynesian languages also tend to use the indigenous god of the
underworld, as in Māori Whiro.[40] Vietnamese might be expected to follow Chinese, but
does not because the Sino-Vietnamese word 冥 minh "dark" is homophonous with
明 minh "bright". Vietnamese instead uses Yama, which is also a Buddhist deity, in the
form of Sao Diêm Vương 星閻王 "Yama's Star", derived from Chinese 閻王 Yán Wáng /
Yìhm Wòhng "King Yama".[40][41][42]
Planet X disproved
Once Pluto was found, its faintness and lack of a viewable disc cast doubt on the idea
that it was Lowell's Planet X.[16] Estimates of Pluto's mass were revised downward
throughout the 20th century.[43]

Mass estimates for Pluto

Year Mass Estimate by

1915 7 Earths Lowell (prediction for Planet X)[16]

1931 1 Earth Nicholson & Mayall[44][45][46]

1948 0.1 (1/10) Earth Kuiper[47]

1976 0.01 (1/100) Earth Cruikshank, Pilcher, & Morrison[48]

1978 0.0015 (1/650) Earth Christy & Harrington[49]

0.00218 (1/459)
2006 Buie et al.[50]
Earth

Astronomers initially calculated its mass based on its presumed effect on Neptune and
Uranus. In 1931, Pluto was calculated to be roughly the mass of Earth, with further
calculations in 1948 bringing the mass down to roughly that of Mars.[45][47] In 1976, Dale
Cruikshank, Carl Pilcher and David Morrison of the University of Hawaiʻi calculated
Pluto's albedo for the first time, finding that it matched that for methane ice; this meant
Pluto had to be exceptionally luminous for its size and therefore could not be more than
1 percent the mass of Earth.[48] (Pluto's albedo is 1.4–1.9 times that of Earth.[3])
In 1978, the discovery of Pluto's moon Charon allowed the measurement of Pluto's
mass for the first time: roughly 0.2% that of Earth, and far too small to account for the
discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus. Subsequent searches for an alternative Planet X,
notably by Robert Sutton Harrington,[51] failed. In 1992, Myles Standish used data
from Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune in 1989, which had revised the estimates of
Neptune's mass downward by 0.5%—an amount comparable to the mass of Mars—to
recalculate its gravitational effect on Uranus. With the new figures added in, the
discrepancies, and with them the need for a Planet X, vanished.[52] As of 2000 the
majority of scientists agree that Planet X, as Lowell defined it, does not exist.[53] Lowell
had made a prediction of Planet X's orbit and position in 1915 that was fairly close to
Pluto's actual orbit and its position at that time; Ernest W. Brown concluded soon after
Pluto's discovery that this was a coincidence.[54]
Classification
Further information: Definition of planet
From 1992 onward, many bodies were discovered orbiting in the same volume as Pluto,
showing that Pluto is part of a population of objects called the Kuiper belt. This made its
official status as a planet controversial, with many questioning whether Pluto should be
considered together with or separately from its surrounding population. Museum and
planetarium directors occasionally created controversy by omitting Pluto from planetary
models of the Solar System. In February 2000 the Hayden Planetarium in New York
City displayed a Solar System model of only eight planets, which made headlines
almost a year later.[55]
Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta lost their planet status after the discovery of many
other asteroids. Similarly, objects increasingly closer in size to Pluto were discovered in
the Kuiper belt region. On July 29, 2005, astronomers at Caltech announced the
discovery of a new trans-Neptunian object, Eris, which was substantially more massive
than Pluto and the most massive object discovered in the Solar System since Triton in
1846. Its discoverers and the press initially called it the tenth planet, although there was
no official consensus at the time on whether to call it a planet.[56] Others in the
astronomical community considered the discovery the strongest argument for
reclassifying Pluto as a minor planet.[57]
IAU classification
Main article: IAU definition of planet
The debate came to a head in August 2006, with an IAU resolution that created an
official definition for the term "planet". According to this resolution, there are three
conditions for an object in the Solar System to be considered a planet:

 The object must be in orbit around the Sun.

  The object must be massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity. More
specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape defined by hydrostatic
equilibrium.
 It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.[58][59]
Pluto fails to meet the third condition.[60] Its mass is substantially less than the combined
mass of the other objects in its orbit: 0.07 times, in contrast to Earth, which is 1.7 million
times the remaining mass in its orbit (excluding the moon).[61][59] The IAU further decided
that bodies that, like Pluto, meet criteria 1 and 2, but do not meet criterion 3 would be
called dwarf planets. In September 2006, the IAU included Pluto, and Eris and its
moon Dysnomia, in their Minor Planet Catalogue, giving them the official minor-planet
designations "(134340) Pluto", "(136199) Eris", and "(136199) Eris I Dysnomia".[62] Had
Pluto been included upon its discovery in 1930, it would have likely been designated
1164, following 1163 Saga, which was discovered a month earlier.[63]
There has been some resistance within the astronomical community toward the
reclassification.[64][65][66] Alan Stern, principal investigator with NASA's New
Horizons mission to Pluto, derided the IAU resolution.[67][68] He also stated that because
less than five percent of astronomers voted for it, the decision was not representative of
the entire astronomical community.[68] Marc W. Buie, then at the Lowell Observatory,
petitioned against the definition.[69] Others have supported the IAU, for example Mike
Brown, the astronomer who discovered Eris.[70]
Public reception to the IAU decision was mixed. A resolution introduced in the California
State Assembly facetiously called the IAU decision a "scientific heresy".[71] The New
Mexico House of Representatives passed a resolution in honor of Clyde Tombaugh, the
discoverer of Pluto and a longtime resident of that state, that declared that Pluto will
always be considered a planet while in New Mexican skies and that March 13, 2007
was Pluto Planet Day.[72][73] The Illinois Senate passed a similar resolution in 2009 on the
basis that Tombaugh was born in Illinois. The resolution asserted that Pluto was
"unfairly downgraded to a 'dwarf' planet" by the IAU."[74] Some members of the public
have also rejected the change, citing the disagreement within the scientific community
on the issue, or for sentimental reasons, maintaining that they have always known Pluto
as a planet and will continue to do so regardless of the IAU decision.[75] In 2006, in its
17th annual words-of-the-year vote, the American Dialect Society voted plutoed as the
word of the year. To "pluto" is to "demote or devalue someone or something".[76]
Researchers on both sides of the debate gathered in August 2008, at the Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for a conference that included back-to-
back talks on the IAU definition of a planet.[77] Entitled "The Great Planet Debate",[78] the
conference published a post-conference press release indicating that scientists could
not come to a consensus about the definition of planet.[79] In June 2008, the IAU had
announced in a press release that the term "plutoid" would henceforth be used to refer
to Pluto and other planetary-mass objects that have an orbital semi-major axis greater
than that of Neptune, though the term has not seen significant use.[80][81][82]
Orbit
 Animation of Pluto's orbit from 1850 to
2097
Sun · Saturn · Uranus · Neptune · Pluto
Pluto's orbital period is about 248 years. Its orbital characteristics are substantially
different from those of the planets, which follow nearly circular orbits around the Sun
close to a flat reference plane called the ecliptic. In contrast, Pluto's orbit is
moderately inclined relative to the ecliptic (over 17°) and
moderately eccentric (elliptical). This eccentricity means a small region of Pluto's orbit
lies closer to the Sun than Neptune's. The Pluto–Charon barycenter came
to perihelion on September 5, 1989,[4][l] and was last closer to the Sun than Neptune
between February 7, 1979, and February 11, 1999.[83]
Although the 3:2 resonance with Neptune (see below) is maintained, Pluto's inclination
and eccentricity behave in a chaotic manner. Computer simulations can be used to
predict its position for several million years (both forward and backward in time), but
after intervals much longer than the Lyapunov time of 10–20 million years, calculations
become unreliable: Pluto is sensitive to immeasurably small details of the Solar System,
hard-to-predict factors that will gradually change Pluto's position in its orbit.[84][85]
The semi-major axis of Pluto's orbit varies between about 39.3 and 39.6 AU with a
period of about 19,951 years, corresponding to an orbital period varying between 246
and 249 years. The semi-major axis and period are presently getting longer.[86]
Relationship with Neptune
 Orbit of Pluto – ecliptic view. This "side view" of Pluto's
orbit (in red) shows its large inclination to the ecliptic. Neptune is seen orbiting close to
the ecliptic.
Despite Pluto's orbit appearing to cross that of Neptune when viewed from north or
south of the Solar System, the two objects' orbits do not intersect. When Pluto is closest
to the Sun, and close to Neptune's orbit as viewed from such a position, it is also the
farthest north of Neptune's path. Pluto's orbit passes about 8 AU north of that of
Neptune, preventing a collision.[87][88][89][m]
This alone is not enough to protect Pluto; perturbations from the planets (especially
Neptune) could alter Pluto's orbit (such as its orbital precession) over millions of years
so that a collision could happen. However, Pluto is also protected by its 2:3 orbital
resonance with Neptune: for every two orbits that Pluto makes around the Sun, Neptune
makes three, in a frame of reference that rotates at the rate that Pluto's perihelion
precesses (about 0.97×10−4 degrees per year[86]). Each cycle lasts about 495 years.
(There are many other objects in this same resonance, called plutinos.) At present, in
each 495-year cycle, the first time Pluto is at perihelion (such as in 1989), Neptune is
57° ahead of Pluto. By Pluto's second passage through perihelion, Neptune will have
completed a further one and a half of its own orbits, and will be 123° behind Pluto.
[91]
Pluto and Neptune's minimum separation is over 17 AU, which is greater than Pluto's
minimum separation from Uranus (11 AU).[89] The minimum separation between Pluto
and Neptune actually occurs near the time of Pluto's aphelion.[86]
 Ecliptic longitude of Neptune
minus that of Pluto (blue), and rate of change of Pluto's distance from the sun (red). The
red curve crosses zero at perihelion and aphelion.
The 2:3 resonance between the two bodies is highly stable and has been preserved
over millions of years.[92] This prevents their orbits from changing relative to one another,
so the two bodies can never pass near each other. Even if Pluto's orbit were not
inclined, the two bodies could never collide.[89] When Pluto's period is slightly different
from 3/2 of Neptune's, the pattern of its distance from Neptune will drift. Near perihelion
Pluto moves interior to Neptune's orbit and is therefore moving faster, so during the first
of two orbits in the 495-year cycle, it is approaching Neptune from behind. At present it
remains between 50° and 65° behind Neptune for 100 years (e.g. 1937-2036).[91] The
gravitational pull between the two causes angular momentum to be transferred to Pluto.
This situation moves Pluto into a slightly larger orbit, where it has a slightly longer
period, according to Kepler's third law. After several such repetitions, Pluto is sufficiently
delayed that at the second perihelion of each cycle it will not be far ahead of Neptune
coming behind it, and Neptune will start to decrease Pluto's period again. The whole
cycle takes about 20,000 years to complete.[89][92][93]
Other factors
Numerical studies have shown that over millions of years, the general nature of the
alignment between the orbits of Pluto and Neptune does not change.[87][86] There are
several other resonances and interactions that enhance Pluto's stability. These arise
principally from two additional mechanisms (besides the 2:3 mean-motion resonance).
First, Pluto's argument of perihelion, the angle between the point where it crosses the
ecliptic (or the invariant plane) and the point where it is closest to the
Sun, librates around 90°.[86] This means that when Pluto is closest to the Sun, it is at its
farthest north of the plane of the Solar System, preventing encounters with Neptune.
This is a consequence of the Kozai mechanism,[87] which relates the eccentricity of an
orbit to its inclination to a larger perturbing body—in this case, Neptune. Relative to
Neptune, the amplitude of libration is 38°, and so the angular separation of Pluto's
perihelion to the orbit of Neptune is always greater than 52° (90°–38°). The closest such
angular separation occurs every 10,000 years.[92]
Second, the longitudes of ascending nodes of the two bodies—the points where they
cross the invariant plane—are in near-resonance with the above libration. When the two
longitudes are the same—that is, when one could draw a straight line through both
nodes and the Sun—Pluto's perihelion lies exactly at 90°, and hence it comes closest to
the Sun when it is furthest north of Neptune's orbit. This is known as the 1:1
superresonance. All the Jovian planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) play a
role in the creation of the superresonance.[87]
Orcus
The 2nd-largest known plutino, 90482 Orcus, has a diameter around 900 km and is in a
very similar orbit to that of Pluto. However, the orbits of Pluto and Orcus are out of
phase, so that the two never approach each other. It has been termed the "anti-Pluto",
and is named for the Etruscan counterpart to the god Pluto.
Rotation
Pluto's rotation period, its day, is equal to 6.387 Earth days.[3][94] Like Uranus and 2
Pallas, Pluto rotates on its "side" in its orbital plane, with an axial tilt of 120°, and so its
seasonal variation is extreme; at its solstices, one-fourth of its surface is in continuous
daylight, whereas another fourth is in continuous darkness.[95] The reason for this
unusual orientation has been debated. Research from the University of Arizona has
suggested that it may be due to the way that a body's spin will always adjust to minimise
energy. This could mean a body reorienting itself to put extraneous mass near the
equator and regions lacking mass tend towards the poles. This is called polar wander.
[96]
According to a paper released from the University of Arizona, this could be caused by
masses of frozen nitrogen building up in shadowed areas of the dwarf planet. These
masses would cause the body to reorient itself, leading to its unusual axial tilt of 120°.
The buildup of nitrogen is due to Pluto's vast distance from the Sun. At the equator,
temperatures can drop to −240 °C (−400.0 °F; 33.1 K), causing nitrogen to freeze as
water would freeze on Earth. The same polar wandering effect seen on Pluto would be
observed on Earth were the Antarctic ice sheet several times larger.[97]
Geology
Main articles: Geology of Pluto and Geography of Pluto
Surface
 Sputnik Planitia is covered with churning nitrogen ice
"cells" that are geologically young and turning over due to convection.
The plains on Pluto's surface are composed of more than 98 percent nitrogen ice, with
traces of methane and carbon monoxide.[98] Nitrogen and carbon monoxide are most
abundant on the anti-Charon face of Pluto (around 180° longitude, where Tombaugh
Regio's western lobe, Sputnik Planitia, is located), whereas methane is most abundant
near 300° east.[99] The mountains are made of water ice.[100] Pluto's surface is quite varied,
with large differences in both brightness and color.[101] Pluto is one of the most
contrastive bodies in the Solar System, with as much contrast as Saturn's
moon Iapetus.[102] The color varies from charcoal black, to dark orange and white.
[103]
Pluto's color is more similar to that of Io with slightly more orange and significantly
less red than Mars.[104] Notable geographical features include Tombaugh Regio, or the
"Heart" (a large bright area on the side opposite Charon), Belton Regio,[6] or the "Whale"
(a large dark area on the trailing hemisphere), and the "Brass Knuckles" (a series of
equatorial dark areas on the leading hemisphere).
Sputnik Planitia, the western lobe of the "Heart", is a 1,000 km-wide basin of frozen
nitrogen and carbon monoxide ices, divided into polygonal cells, which are interpreted
as convection cells that carry floating blocks of water ice crust and sublimation pits
towards their margins;[105][106][107] there are obvious signs of glacial flows both into and out of
the basin.[108][109] It has no craters that were visible to New Horizons, indicating that its
surface is less than 10 million years old.[110] Latest studies have shown that the surface
has an age of 180000+90000
−40000 years.[111] The New Horizons science team summarized initial findings as "Pluto
displays a surprisingly wide variety of geological landforms, including those resulting
from glaciological and surface–atmosphere interactions as well as impact, tectonic,
possible cryovolcanic, and mass-wasting processes."[7]
In Western parts of Sputnik Planitia there are fields of transverse dunes formed by the
winds blowing from the center of Sputnik Planitia in the direction of surrounding
mountains. The dune wavelengths are in the range of 0.4–1 km and likely consist of
methane particles 200–300 μm in size.[112]
 

Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera image of Pluto in enhanced color to bring out differences in
surface composition.

Distribution of numerous impact craters and basins on both Pluto and Charon. The variation in
density (with none found in Sputnik Planitia) indicates a long history of varying geological activity.
Precisely for this reason, the confidence of numerous craters on Pluto remain uncertain.[113] The
lack of craters on the left and right of each map is due to low-resolution coverage of those anti-
encounter regions.
 

Geologic map of Sputnik Planitia and surroundings (context), with convection cell margins
outlined in black

Regions where water ice has been detected (blue regions)

Internal structure
"Life on Pluto" redirects here. For fiction about aliens from Pluto, see Life on Pluto in
fiction.

Model of the internal structure of Pluto [114]

  Water ice crust
 Liquid water ocean
 Silicate core
Pluto's density is 1.860±0.013 g/cm3.[7] Because the decay of radioactive elements would
eventually heat the ices enough for the rock to separate from them, scientists expect
that Pluto's internal structure is differentiated, with the rocky material having settled into
a dense core surrounded by a mantle of water ice. The pre–New Horizons estimate for
the diameter of the core is 1700 km, 70% of Pluto's diameter.[114] Pluto has no magnetic
field.[115]
It is possible that such heating continues, creating a subsurface ocean of liquid
water 100 to 180 km thick at the core–mantle boundary.[114][116][117] In September 2016,
scientists at Brown University simulated the impact thought to have formed Sputnik
Planitia, and showed that it might have been the result of liquid water upwelling from
below after the collision, implying the existence of a subsurface ocean at least 100 km
deep.[118] In June 2020, astronomers reported evidence that Pluto may have had
a subsurface ocean, and consequently may have been habitable, when it was first
formed.[119][120] In March 2022, a team of researchers proposed that the mountains Wright
Mons and Piccard Mons are actually a merger of many smaller cryovolcanic domes,
suggesting a source of heat on the body at levels previously thought not possible.[121]
Mass and size

Pluto (bottom left) compared in size to the Earth and the

Moon
Pluto's diameter is 2376.6±3.2 km[5] and its mass is (1.303±0.003)×1022 kg, 17.7% that of
the Moon (0.22% that of Earth).[122] Its surface area is 1.774443×107 km2, or just slightly
bigger than Russia or Antarctica. Its surface gravity is 0.063 g (compared to 1 g for
Earth and 0.17 g for the Moon).[3] This gives Pluto an escape velocity of 4,363.2 km per
hour / 2,711.167 miles per hour (as compared to Earth's 40,270 km per hour / 25,020
miles per hour). Pluto is more than twice the diameter and a dozen times the mass
of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is less massive than the dwarf
planet Eris, a trans-Neptunian object discovered in 2005, though Pluto has a larger
diameter of 2,376.6 km[5] compared to Eris's approximate diameter of 2,326 km.[123]
With less than 0.2 lunar masses, Pluto is much less massive than the terrestrial planets,
and also less massive than seven moons: Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io,
the Moon, Europa, and Triton. The mass is much less than thought before Charon was
discovered.[124]
The discovery of Pluto's satellite Charon in 1978 enabled a determination of the mass of
the Pluto–Charon system by application of Newton's formulation of Kepler's third law.
Observations of Pluto in occultation with Charon allowed scientists to establish Pluto's
diameter more accurately, whereas the invention of adaptive optics allowed them to
determine its shape more accurately.[125]
Determinations of Pluto's size have been complicated by its
atmosphere[126] and hydrocarbon haze.[127] In March 2014, Lellouch, de Bergh et al.
published findings regarding methane mixing ratios in Pluto's atmosphere consistent
with a Plutonian diameter greater than 2,360 km, with a "best guess" of 2,368 km.[128] On
July 13, 2015, images from NASA's New Horizons mission Long Range
Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), along with data from the other instruments,
determined Pluto's diameter to be 2,370 km (1,473 mi),[123][129] which was later revised to
be 2,372 km (1,474 mi) on July 24,[130] and later to 2374±8 km.[7] Using radio
occultation data from the New Horizons Radio Science Experiment (REX), the diameter
was found to be 2376.6±3.2 km.[5]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more
info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

The masses of Pluto and Charon compared to other dwarf planets

(Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Orcus, Ceres) and to the icy moons Triton (Neptune I), Titania
(Uranus III), Oberon (Uranus IV), Rhea (Saturn V) and Iapetus (Saturn VIII). The unit of mass is ×1021 kg.

Atmosphere
Main article: Atmosphere of Pluto

A near-true-color image taken by New

Horizons after its flyby. Numerous layers of blue haze float in Pluto's atmosphere. Along
and near the limb, mountains and their shadows are visible.
Pluto has a tenuous atmosphere consisting of nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4), and carbon
monoxide (CO), which are in equilibrium with their ices on Pluto's surface.[131]
[132]
According to the measurements by New Horizons, the surface pressure is about
1 Pa (10 μbar),[7] roughly one million to 100,000 times less than Earth's atmospheric
pressure. It was initially thought that, as Pluto moves away from the Sun, its
atmosphere should gradually freeze onto the surface; studies of New Horizons data and
ground-based occultations show that Pluto's atmospheric density increases, and that it
likely remains gaseous throughout Pluto's orbit.[133][134] New Horizons observations showed
that atmospheric escape of nitrogen to be 10,000 times less than expected.[134] Alan
Stern has contended that even a small increase in Pluto's surface temperature can lead
to exponential increases in Pluto's atmospheric density; from 18 hPa to as much as
280 hPa (three times that of Mars to a quarter that of the Earth). At such densities,
nitrogen could flow across the surface as liquid.[134] Just like sweat cools the body as it
evaporates from the skin, the sublimation of Pluto's atmosphere cools its surface.
[135]
Pluto has no or almost no troposphere; observations by New Horizons suggest only a
thin tropospheric boundary layer. Its thickness in the place of measurement was 4 km,
and the temperature was 37±3 K. The layer is not continuous.[136]
In July 2019, an occultation by Pluto showed that its atmospheric pressure, against
expectations, had fallen by 20% since 2016.[137] In 2021, astronomers at the Southwest
Research Institute confirmed the result using data from an occultation in 2018, which
showed that light was appearing less gradually from behind Pluto's disc, indicating a
thinning atmosphere.[138]
The presence of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, in Pluto's atmosphere creates
a temperature inversion, with the average temperature of its atmosphere tens of
degrees warmer than its surface,[139] though observations by New Horizons have
revealed Pluto's upper atmosphere to be far colder than expected (70 K, as opposed to
about 100 K).[134] Pluto's atmosphere is divided into roughly 20 regularly spaced haze
layers up to 150 km high,[7] thought to be the result of pressure waves created by airflow
across Pluto's mountains.[134]
Natural satellites
Main article: Moons of Pluto

An oblique view of the Pluto–Charon system,

showing that Pluto orbits a point outside itself. The two bodies are mutually tidally

locked. Five known moons of Pluto to scale

Pluto has five known natural satellites. The largest and closest to Pluto is Charon. First
identified in 1978 by astronomer James Christy, Charon is the only moon of Pluto that
may be in hydrostatic equilibrium. Charon's mass is sufficient to cause the barycenter of
the Pluto–Charon system to be outside Pluto. Beyond Charon there are four much
smaller circumbinary moons. In order of distance from Pluto they are Styx, Nix,
Kerberos, and Hydra. Nix and Hydra were both discovered in 2005,[140] Kerberos was
discovered in 2011,[141] and Styx was discovered in 2012.[142] The satellites' orbits are
circular (eccentricity < 0.006) and coplanar with Pluto's equator (inclination < 1°),[143]
[144]
and therefore tilted approximately 120° relative to Pluto's orbit. The Plutonian system
is highly compact: the five known satellites orbit within the inner 3% of the region
where prograde orbits would be stable.[145]
The orbital periods of all Pluto's moons are linked in a system of orbital
resonances and near-resonances.[144][146] When precession is accounted for, the orbital
periods of Styx, Nix, and Hydra are in an exact 18:22:33 ratio.[144] There is a sequence of
approximate ratios, 3:4:5:6, between the periods of Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra with
that of Charon; the ratios become closer to being exact the further out the moons are.[144]
[147]

The Pluto–Charon system is one of the few in the Solar System whose barycenter lies
outside the primary body; the Patroclus–Menoetius system is a smaller example, and
the Sun–Jupiter system is the only larger one.[148] The similarity in size of Charon and
Pluto has prompted some astronomers to call it a double dwarf planet.[149] The system is
also unusual among planetary systems in that each is tidally locked to the other, which
means that Pluto and Charon always have the same hemisphere facing each other — a
property shared by only one other known system, Eris and Dysnomia.[150] From any
position on either body, the other is always at the same position in the sky, or always
obscured.[151] This also means that the rotation period of each is equal to the time it takes
the entire system to rotate around its barycenter.[94]
Pluto's moons are hypothesized to have been formed by a collision between Pluto and a
similar-sized body, early in the history of the Solar System. The collision released
material that consolidated into the moons around Pluto.[152]
Quasi-satellite
In 2012, it was calculated that 15810 Arawn could be a quasi-satellite of Pluto, a
specific type of co-orbital configuration.[153] According to the calculations, the object would
be a quasi-satellite of Pluto for about 350,000 years out of every two-million-year period.
[153][154]
Measurements made by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 made it possible to
calculate the orbit of Arawn more accurately,[155] and confirmed the earlier ones.
[156]
However, it is not agreed upon among astronomers whether Arawn should be
classified as a quasi-satellite of Pluto based on its orbital dynamics, since its orbit is
primarily controlled by Neptune with only occasional perturbations by Pluto.[157][155][156]
Origin
Further information: Kuiper belt and Nice model
 Plot of the known Kuiper belt objects, set against the
four giant planets
Pluto's origin and identity had long puzzled astronomers. One early hypothesis was that
Pluto was an escaped moon of Neptune[158] knocked out of orbit by Neptune's largest
moon, Triton. This idea was eventually rejected after dynamical studies showed it to be
impossible because Pluto never approaches Neptune in its orbit.[159]
Pluto's true place in the Solar System began to reveal itself only in 1992, when
astronomers began to find small icy objects beyond Neptune that were similar to Pluto
not only in orbit but also in size and composition. This trans-Neptunian population is
thought to be the source of many short-period comets. Pluto is the largest member of
the Kuiper belt,[n] a stable belt of objects located between 30 and 50 AU from the Sun.
As of 2011, surveys of the Kuiper belt to magnitude 21 were nearly complete and any
remaining Pluto-sized objects are expected to be beyond 100 AU from the Sun.[160] Like
other Kuiper-belt objects (KBOs), Pluto shares features with comets; for example,
the solar wind is gradually blowing Pluto's surface into space.[161] It has been claimed that
if Pluto were placed as near to the Sun as Earth, it would develop a tail, as comets do.
[162]
This claim has been disputed with the argument that Pluto's escape velocity is too
high for this to happen.[163] It has been proposed that Pluto may have formed as a result
of the agglomeration of numerous comets and Kuiper-belt objects.[164][165]
Though Pluto is the largest Kuiper belt object discovered,[127] Neptune's moon Triton,
which is larger than Pluto, is similar to it both geologically and atmospherically, and is
thought to be a captured Kuiper belt object.[166] Eris (see above) is about the same size
as Pluto (though more massive) but is not strictly considered a member of the Kuiper
belt population. Rather, it is considered a member of a linked population called
the scattered disc.[167]
Like other members of the Kuiper belt, Pluto is thought to be a residual planetesimal; a
component of the original protoplanetary disc around the Sun that failed to fully
coalesce into a full-fledged planet. Most astronomers agree that Pluto owes its position
to a sudden migration undergone by Neptune early in the Solar System's formation. As
Neptune migrated outward, it approached the objects in the proto-Kuiper belt, setting
one in orbit around itself (Triton), locking others into resonances, and knocking others
into chaotic orbits. The objects in the scattered disc, a dynamically unstable region
overlapping the Kuiper belt, are thought to have been placed in their positions by
interactions with Neptune's migrating resonances.[168] A computer model created in 2004
by Alessandro Morbidelli of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in Nice suggested that
the migration of Neptune into the Kuiper belt may have been triggered by the formation
of a 1:2 resonance between Jupiter and Saturn, which created a gravitational push that
propelled both Uranus and Neptune into higher orbits and caused them to switch
places, ultimately doubling Neptune's distance from the Sun. The resultant expulsion of
objects from the proto-Kuiper belt could also explain the Late Heavy
Bombardment 600 million years after the Solar System's formation and the origin of
the Jupiter trojans.[169] It is possible that Pluto had a near-circular orbit about 33 AU from
the Sun before Neptune's migration perturbed it into a resonant capture.[170] The Nice
model requires that there were about a thousand Pluto-sized bodies in the original
planetesimal disk, which included Triton and Eris.[169]
Observation and exploration
Observation

Computer-generated rotating image of Pluto based on

observations by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002–2003
Pluto's distance from Earth makes its in-depth study and exploration difficult. Pluto's
visual apparent magnitude averages 15.1, brightening to 13.65 at perihelion.[3] To see it,
a telescope is required; around 30 cm (12 in) aperture being desirable.[171] It looks star-
like and without a visible disk even in large telescopes,[172] because its angular
diameter is maximum 0.11".[3]
The earliest maps of Pluto, made in the late 1980s, were brightness maps created from
close observations of eclipses by its largest moon, Charon. Observations were made of
the change in the total average brightness of the Pluto–Charon system during the
eclipses. For example, eclipsing a bright spot on Pluto makes a bigger total brightness
change than eclipsing a dark spot. Computer processing of many such observations
can be used to create a brightness map. This method can also track changes in
brightness over time.[173][174]
Better maps were produced from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST),
which offered higher resolution, and showed considerably more detail,[102] resolving
variations several hundred kilometers across, including polar regions and large bright
spots.[104] These maps were produced by complex computer processing, which finds the
best-fit projected maps for the few pixels of the Hubble images.[175] These remained the
most detailed maps of Pluto until the flyby of New Horizons in July 2015, because the
two cameras on the HST used for these maps were no longer in service.[175]
Exploration
Main articles: Exploration of Pluto and New Horizons

Pluto and Charon seen orbiting each other by New

Horizons Panoramic view of Pluto's icy

mountains and flat ice plains, imaged by New Horizons 15 minutes after its closest
approach to Pluto. Distinct haze layers in Pluto's atmosphere can be seen backlit by the
Sun.
The New Horizons spacecraft, which flew by Pluto in July 2015, is the first and so far
only attempt to explore Pluto directly. Launched in 2006, it captured its first (distant)
images of Pluto in late September 2006 during a test of the Long Range
Reconnaissance Imager.[176] The images, taken from a distance of approximately
4.2 billion kilometers, confirmed the spacecraft's ability to track distant targets, critical
for maneuvering toward Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects. In early 2007 the craft
made use of a gravity assist from Jupiter.
New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, after a 3,462-day
journey across the Solar System. Scientific observations of Pluto began five months
before the closest approach and continued for at least a month after the encounter.
Observations were conducted using a remote sensing package that
included imaging instruments and a radio science investigation tool, as well
as spectroscopic and other experiments. The scientific goals of New Horizons were to
characterize the global geology and morphology of Pluto and its moon Charon, map
their surface composition, and analyze Pluto's neutral atmosphere and its escape rate.
On October 25, 2016, at 05:48 pm ET, the last bit of data (of a total of 50 billion bits of
data; or 6.25 gigabytes) was received from New Horizons from its close encounter with
Pluto.[177][178][179][180]
Since the New Horizons flyby, scientists have advocated for an orbiter mission that
would return to Pluto to fulfill new science objectives.[181][182][183] They include mapping the
surface at 9.1 m (30 ft) per pixel, observations of Pluto's smaller satellites, observations
of how Pluto changes as it rotates on its axis, investigations of a possible subsurface
ocean, and topographic mapping of Pluto's regions that are covered in long-term
darkness due to its axial tilt. The last objective could be accomplished using laser
pulses to generate a complete topographic map of Pluto. New Horizons principal
investigator Alan Stern has advocated for a Cassini-style orbiter that would launch
around 2030 (the 100th anniversary of Pluto's discovery) and use Charon's gravity to
adjust its orbit as needed to fulfill science objectives after arriving at the Pluto system.
[184]
The orbiter could then use Charon's gravity to leave the Pluto system and study more
KBOs after all Pluto science objectives are completed. A conceptual study funded by
the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program describes a fusion-enabled
Pluto orbiter and lander based on the Princeton field-reversed configuration reactor.[185][186]
New Horizons imaged all of Pluto's northern hemisphere, and the equatorial regions
down to about 30° South. Higher southern latitudes have only been observed, at very
low resolution, from Earth.[187] Images from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996 cover
85% of Pluto and show large albedo features down to about 75° South.[188][189] This is
enough to show the extent of the temperate-zone maculae. Later images had slightly
better resolution, due to minor improvements in Hubble instrumentation.[190] The
equatorial region of the sub-Charon hemisphere of Pluto has only been imaged at low
resolution, as New Horizons made its closest approach to the anti-Charon hemisphere.
[191]

Some albedo variations in the higher southern latitudes could be detected by New
Horizons using Charon-shine (light reflected off Charon). The south polar region seems
to be darker than the north polar region, but there is a high-albedo region in the
southern hemisphere that may be a regional nitrogen or methane ice deposit.[192]