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Pluto: Overview Pluto: Moons Pluto: Gallery Pluto: Facts & Figures Pluto: Kid's Eye View
Pluto: Facts & Figures
Discovered By
Clyde Tombaugh
Date of Discovery
1930
Average Distance from the Sun
Metric: 5,906,380,000 km
English: 3,670,050,000 miles
Scientific Notation: 5.90638 x 109 km (39.482 A.U.)
By Comparison: 39.482 x Earth
Perihelion (closest)
Metric: 4,436,820,000 km
English: 2,756,902,000 miles
Scientific Notation: 4.43682 x 109 km (29.658 A.U.)
By Comparison: 30.171 x Earth
Aphelion (farthest)
Metric: 7,375,930,000 km
English: 4,583,190,000 miles
Scientific Notation: 7.37593 x 109 km (49.305 A.U.)
By Comparison: 48.481 x Earth
Equatorial Radius
Metric: 1,151 km
English: 715 miles
Scientific Notation: 1.151 x 103 km
By Comparison: 0.180 x Earth
Equatorial Circumference
Metric: 7,232 km
English: 4,494 miles
Scientific Notation: 7.232 x 103 km
Volume
Metric: 6,390,000,000 km3
English: 1,530,000,000 mi3
Scientific Notation: 6.39 x 109 km3
By Comparison: 0.0059 x Earth
Mass
Metric: 13,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
Scientific Notation: 1.3 x 1022 kg
By Comparison: 0.0022 x Earth
Density
Metric: 2 g/cm3
By Comparison: ~ 0.4 x Earth
Surface Area
Metric: 16,650,000 km2
English: 6,430,000 square miles
Scientific Notation: 1.665 x 107 km2
By Comparison: 0.033 x Earth
Equatorial Surface Gravity
Metric: 0.81 m/s2
English: 2.7 ft/s2
By Comparison: If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 8 pounds on Pluto.
Escape Velocity
Metric: 4,570 km/h
English: 2,840 mph
Scientific Notation: 1,270 m/s
By Comparison: Escape velocity of Earth is 25,022 mph.
Sidereal Rotation Period (Length of Day)
-6.387 Earth days (retrograde)
-153.3 hours (retrograde)
By Comparison: One Earth day is 24 hours.
Sidereal Orbit Period (Length of Year)
247.92 Earth years
90,553 Earth days
Mean Orbit Velocity
Metric: 17,096 km/h
English: 10,623 mph
Scientific Notation: 4,749.0 m/s
By Comparison: 0.425 x Earth
Orbital Eccentricity
0.2488
By Comparison: 14.9 x Earth
Orbital Inclination to Ecliptic
17.14 degrees
Equatorial Inclination to Orbit
119.61 degrees
By Comparison: 5.10 x Earth
Orbital Circumference
Metric: 32,820,000,000 km
English: 20,390,000,000 miles
Scientific Notation: 3.282 x 1010 km
By Comparison: 35.505 x Earth
Minimum/Maximum Surface Temperature
Metric: -233/-223 °C
English: -387/-369 °F
Scientific Notation: 40/50 K
Atmospheric Constituents
By Comparison: Earth's atmosphere consists mostly of N2 and O2.
Pluto's Moons
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