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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.
It is about half the diameter and an eighth the mass of Pluto, a dwarf planet that resides in a frigid region of the outer Solar System called the Kuiper Belt, beyond the most distant planet Neptune.
On February 12, 2015, NASA released new images of Pluto (taken from January 25 to 31) from the approaching probe. [ 133 ] [ 134 ] New Horizons was more than 203 million km (126 million mi) away from Pluto when it began taking the photos, which showed Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
The nine missions include two, Ulysses and New Horizons, whose primary objectives were not outer planets, but which flew past Jupiter to gain gravity assists en route to a polar orbit around the Sun (Ulysses), and to Pluto (New Horizons). Pluto was considered a planet at the time that New Horizons launched, but was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
Pluto, a dwarf planet, and its moons are in the far fringes of our solar system in a zone known as the Kuiper Belt. Besides water ice, ammonia and organic materials were previously detected on Charon. Both Pluto and Charon are over 3 billion miles (4.83 billion kilometers) from the sun and are likely too chilly to support life.
NASA has released the 'first and best' images the New Horizons spacecraft was able to take of Pluto during its flyby of the dwarf planet in July. NASA has released the 'first and best' images the ...
The cancellation of Pluto Kuiper Express angered some of the space-exploration scientific community, which led to groups, such as The Planetary Society, lobbying NASA for either a reboot of the Pluto Kuiper Express or a restart of a mission to Pluto. Internal divisions within NASA, including its Scientific Advisory Council, also voiced support ...
NASA's New Horizons probe has returned the first color images of Pluto. The small blurry dots in the newly-released photo are Pluto and Charon, the largest of Pluto's moons. New Horizons captured ...