how big is pluto compared to earth
Pluto is tiny compared to Earth: it’s a bit under one‑fifth of Earth’s diameter and holds only about 1/170 of Earth’s volume, with Earth being roughly 80 times more massive.
Quick Scoop
Basic size comparison
- Average diameter of Earth: about 12,742 km.
- Average diameter of Pluto: about 2,370–2,377 km.
- That means Pluto is only about 18–19% of Earth’s diameter (a bit less than one‑fifth as wide).
If you could line up worlds like coins, you’d need about five Plutos edge‑to‑edge to span the width of Earth.
Volume and “how many Plutos in an Earth?”
- Because volume scales with the cube of the diameter, the difference grows fast.
- Earth’s volume is roughly 170 times greater than Pluto’s (around 170–180 Plutos could fit inside Earth by volume).
Think of stuffing many small snowballs (Plutos) into one big snowball (Earth): you’d need well over a hundred of the little ones to match the big one’s bulk.
Mass and gravity feel
- Earth’s mass: about 5.97×10245.97\times 10^{24}5.97×1024 kg.
- Pluto’s mass: of order 102210^{22}1022 kg, making Earth roughly 80–100 times more massive.
- Surface gravity on Pluto is only about 6% of Earth’s; a 100 kg person on Earth would “weigh” about 6 kg on Pluto.
So Pluto isn’t just small in size; it’s also extremely light compared with Earth, which is why its gravity feels so weak.
A quick HTML table
Here’s a compact side‑by‑side view:
| Property | Earth | Pluto | Pluto vs Earth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Terrestrial planet | [1]Dwarf planet | [5][1]Pluto is not classed as a major planet. | [5]
| Diameter | ≈ 12,742 km | [3][1]≈ 2,370–2,377 km | [7][5][1]Pluto is ~18–19% of Earth’s diameter. | [7]
| Volume | About 170× Pluto’s volume (approx.) | [1][3]About 1/170 of Earth’s volume | [3][1]≈170 Plutos could fit inside Earth. | [1][3]
| Mass | ≈ $$5.97 \times 10^{24}$$ kg | [3][1]≈ $$10^{22}$$ kg range | [5][3]Earth is ~80–100× more massive. | [5][1][3]
| Surface gravity | 1 g (9.81 m/s²) | [1]≈ 0.06 g | [1]Gravity on Pluto is ~6% of Earth’s. | [1]
Little story to picture it
Imagine Earth as a big classroom globe on a stand.
If that globe is Earth, Pluto is closer to a small orange or large ping‑pong
ball sitting beside it—round, real, and complex, but absolutely dwarfed in
both size and weight.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.