Pluto

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Pluto and its moon Charon, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Pluto and its moon Charon, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Pluto is mostly brown.
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Pluto is mostly brown.
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For other uses, see Pluto (disambiguation).

Pluto is a dwarf planet in our Solar System. It is made of rock and ice. It was the smallest planet in the Solar System, 2390 kilometres across. It sometimes gets closer to the Sun than Neptune, because of the path it follows around the Sun. Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix, and Hydra. Charon is 1190 km across, half that of Pluto, and the two look like a double dwarf planet. Charon is on average 19,410 km away from Pluto. Nix and Hydra are much smaller, about 45-160 km across, about 44,000 km from Pluto.

Until August 2006, Pluto was called the ninth planet. The International Astronomical Union said that Pluto should be called a dwarf planet instead.

[edit] See also

The Solar System
Image:Eight Planets.png
Star: The Sun
Planets: MercuryVenusEarthMarsJupiterSaturnUranusNeptune
Dwarf planets: CeresPlutoEris
Small solar system body: Asteroid beltCometsMeteorsKuiper beltScattered disc – Oort cloud
Other: Moon


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