Pluto and Charon. Artwork of the planet Pluto and its moon Charon (right), shown to scale. Pluto is the most distant planet from the Sun. Its diameter

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Pluto and Charon. Artwork of the planet Pluto and its moon Charon (right), shown to scale. Pluto is the most distant planet from the Sun. Its diameter is less than a fifth of Earth's and its surface area is about the same as that of Russia. Charon, at only half its size, makes this a double planet system. Little is known about these worlds, which are yet to be visited by spacecraft from Earth. It is thought they are a mixture of rock and ices, which include frozen gases at the extremely cold (below -200 degrees Celsius) surface temperatures. Impact craters are seen on the surfaces.

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Size: 4134px × 4134px
Photo credit: © DETLEV VAN RAVENSWAAY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomical, astronomy, belt, binary, charon, crater, cratered, craters, duo, dwarf, ice, icy, kbo, kuiper, moon, object, objects, pair, planet, planetary, pluto, rock, rocky, science, small, solar, space, system, tno, trans-neptunian