Pluto fact file

Pluto is a dwarf planet in a distant region of our Solar System called the Kuiper Belt. It was discovered in 1930. Pluto is smaller than Earth's Moon, and its surface is made of rock and ice. It takes about 248 Earth years to travel once around the Sun. Pluto has five known moons; its largest moon is Charon. Sunlight is much fainter there than it is on Earth, and the surface is extremely cold. In 2006, astronomers classified Pluto as a dwarf planet because it had not cleared other objects from its path around the Sun.