The Famous Dwarf Planet
Diameter
2,377 km
Smaller than our Moon
Day length
6.4 days
Tilted like Uranus
Year
248 years
Since discovery, <1 orbit
Pluto was the ninth planet from its discovery in 1930 until 2006, when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet — one of the largest members of the Kuiper Belt. In 2015 NASA’s New Horizons flew past and transformed it from a fuzzy dot into a world: nitrogen-ice glaciers, water-ice mountains, and a vast pale heart-shaped plain now called Tombaugh Regio.
Finding It
At magnitude 14 Pluto is far beyond naked-eye, binocular, or small-telescope reach — spotting it takes at least an 8-inch telescope, a dark sky like Zion’s, and a detailed finder chart, and even then it is just a faint point that you confirm by watching it shift against the stars over several nights. It is a target you hunt rather than simply see.