Pluto, at its true size

A heart of nitrogen ice. Pluto is smaller than the Moon, and a year there lasts 248 of ours. New Horizons flew past in July 2015, nine and a half years after leaving the Earth, and found its bright heart: a plain of nitrogen ice about 1,000 km across.

Across
2,380 km
Surface
17.7 million km²
A day
6 Earth days
A year
247.9 Earth years
From the Sun
5,906 million km
Gravity
0.06 × the Earth’s
Temperature
-229 °C
Moons
5

What you’re seeing

New Horizons’ map from its flyby in July 2015, in black and white. It saw one side closely and only the north well: the south was in a winter night lasting decades, so it is shown plain grey.

USGS Astrogeology, New Horizons global mosaic, July 2017, public domain.