The largest of a group of objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, and sharing a specific resonance with Neptune's own orbit. These objects are known as plutinos after their largest and best-known member.
Frosted with methane ice, tiny Pluto lies so far out in the depths of the
Solar System that Sunlight takes more than four hours to reach it.
Use the scrollbar on the right of this window to explore the moons of Pluto, shown to scale. (Values shown are mean distances from Pluto).
A distant member of the Sun's family, Pluto pursues
a wildly eccentricorbit, sometimes even coming nearer to the Sun than Neptune.
The view from Pluto of its snowball moon, Charon. Compared to
its parent planet, Charon is huge - more than half Pluto's
diameter - and for this reason Pluto is sometimes referred to
as a 'double planet'.
