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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.
Dwarf planet Pluto is a member of a group of objects that orbit in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. This distant realm is populated with thousands of miniature icy worlds, which formed early in the history of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago.
Pluto is by far the most famous dwarf planet. Discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, Pluto was long considered our solar system's ninth planet. But after other astronomers found similar intriguing worlds deeper in the distant Kuiper Belt – the IAU reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Learn more about Pluto and other dwarf planets, which are defined as objects that orbit the Sun and are nearly round, but that have not been able to clear their orbit of debris. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has recognized five dwarf planets: Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
New Horizons is a NASA mission to study the dwarf planet Pluto, its moons, and other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system that extends from about 30 AU, near the orbit of Neptune, to about 50 AU from the Sun.
USDZ File (3D Model) Sep 9, 2023. usdz (1.45 MB) NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. A 3D model of Pluto.
Dwarf planet Eris is a member of a group of objects that orbit in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. This distant realm is populated with thousands of miniature icy worlds, which formed early in the history of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago.
Called an asteroid for many years, Ceres is so much bigger and so different from its rocky neighbors that scientists classified it as a dwarf planet in 2006. Even though Ceres comprises 25% of the asteroid belt's total mass, Pluto is still 14 times more massive.
Pluto is the largest dwarf planet in our solar system, just slightly larger than Eris, at number two. Pluto has an equatorial diameter of about 1,477 miles (2,377 kilometers). Pluto is about 1/5th the width of Earth.
Dwarf planet Makemake – along with Pluto, Haumea, and Eris – is located in the Kuiper Belt, a donut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Makemake is slightly smaller than Pluto, and is the second-brightest object in the Kuiper Belt as seen from Earth while Pluto is the brightest.