Pluto facts for kids

Meet Pluto

Pluto is a dwarf planet. It is not one of the eight planets of our Solar System. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, a young American astronomer. For many years after that, it was counted as the ninth planet.

Why is Pluto a dwarf planet?

In 2006, astronomers decided that Pluto was a dwarf planet. A dwarf planet circles the Sun and is big enough to be roughly round, but it hasn't cleared other objects from its path.

Smaller than our Moon

Pluto is only about two thirds as wide as our Moon.

Far out in the Kuiper Belt

Pluto travels in the Kuiper Belt, out beyond Neptune. On average it is about 39 times farther from the Sun than Earth is.

Pluto takes about 248 years to travel once round the Sun. Its path round the Sun is an oval.

Moons and a heart

Pluto has five known moons. The biggest is called Charon.

In 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto. Its pictures showed a big, light patch on Pluto shaped like a heart.

Pluto in a nutshell

• What it is: a dwarf planet
• Where: the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune
• Size: about two thirds as wide as Earth's Moon
• A year: about 248 Earth years
• Moons: five known
• Biggest moon: Charon
• Found: 1930, by Clyde Tombaugh

Quick quiz: Pluto

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