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It's about 3.6 billion miles away from the Sun, and it has a thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. On average, Pluto’s temperature is -387°F (-232°C), making it too cold to sustain life. Pluto is orbited by five known moons, the largest of which is Charon.
Composition by volume. Nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide [14] 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.
Lying 30 to 50 times as far from the sun as Earth, Pluto's composition bears a greater resemblance to the rocky terrestrial planets than the gas giants that are its neighbors.
Pluto, large, distant member of the solar system that formerly was regarded as the outermost and smallest planet. In 2006 a group of experts in the scientific community voted to give Pluto the new classification of dwarf planet. Learn more about Pluto in this article.
Chemical composition: Pluto probably consists of a mixture of 70 percent rock and 30 percent water ice. Internal structure: The dwarf planet probably has a rocky core surrounded by...
Pluto is a dwarf planet located in a distant region of our solar system beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt. Pluto was long considered our ninth planet, but the International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Pluto has a thin, tenuous atmosphere that expands when it comes closer to the Sun and collapses as it moves farther away – similar to a comet. The main constituent is molecular nitrogen, though molecules of methane and carbon monoxide have also been detected.
The temperature near the surface is 45 K (−228 °C, or −379 °F). Haze layers are seen up to an altitude of 200 km (120 miles). The upper atmosphere is quite extended, going up to 1,800 km (1,100 miles) from the surface, and quite cold, which keeps nitrogen from escaping into space.
Composition and Surface Features Pluto consists primarily of rock and ice. Its surface features include vast plains of nitrogen ice, mountain ranges made of water ice, and regions covered with methane and carbon monoxide ices.
It's an area full of icy bodies and other dwarf planets at the edge of our solar system. Pluto is known as the "King of the Kuiper Belt" – and it's the largest object in the region, even though another object similar in size, called Eris, has a slightly higher mass. One thing is certain.