how small is pluto
Pluto is extremely small: only about 2,377 km across, which is roughly one- fifth the width of Earth and about two-thirds the size of our Moon. That means you could fit well over 150 Plutos inside Earth by volume. In planet terms, Pluto is closer in scale to a large moon than to any of the eight major planets.
Basic size facts
- Diameter: about 2,377 km (1,477 miles).
- Radius: about 1,188 km (739 miles).
- Mass: around 0.2% of Earth’s mass (about 17–20% of our Moon’s mass).
So if Earth were the size of a standard classroom globe, Pluto would be closer to a small marble.
Compared to Earth and Moon
- Width: Pluto is about one-fifth as wide as Earth.
- Versus the Moon: Pluto’s diameter is roughly two-thirds that of the Moon (the Moon is about 3,474 km across).
- Volume: you can fit roughly 170 Plutos inside Earth.
Quick comparison table
| Object | Diameter (km) | How it compares to Pluto |
|---|---|---|
| Pluto | ≈ 2,377 km | [9][3]Reference size | [3]
| Earth | ≈ 12,742 km | [3]≈ 5× wider; ≈ 170 Plutos by volume | [5][9][3]
| Moon | ≈ 3,474 km | [1][3]About 1.5× Pluto’s diameter | [1][3]
| Mercury | ≈ 4,880 km | [1][3]More than 2× Pluto’s diameter | [3][1]
In the solar system context
- Pluto is smaller than all eight major planets; even Mercury is more than twice as wide.
- It is more similar in size to big icy moons like Triton than to planets.
- You could fit thousands of Plutos inside gas giants: roughly 9,000 in Neptune and about 200,000 in Jupiter, and over 200 million inside the Sun.
Why this “smallness” matters
- Pluto’s low mass and relatively small size are key reasons it is classed as a dwarf planet instead of a full planet under modern definitions.
- Even though it is small, data from the New Horizons mission showed Pluto is a complex world with mountains, glaciers, and a thin atmosphere, not just a frozen rock.
In short, Pluto is tiny on a planetary scale, but still big enough to be a fascinating little world on the outer edge of the solar system.
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How small is Pluto? Learn Pluto’s exact size, how it compares to Earth and the
Moon, and why its tiny diameter makes it a dwarf planet, using simple numbers
and solar-system context.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.
