How big is Pluto? New Horizons settles decades-long debate

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Press Release

A portrait from the final approach. Pluto and Charon display striking colour and brightness contrast in this composite image from 11 July, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images colourised with Ralph data collected from the last rotation of Pluto. Colour data being returned by the spacecraft now will update these images, bringing color contrast into sharper focus. Image credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI.
A portrait from the final approach. Pluto and Charon display striking colour and brightness contrast in this composite image from 11 July, showing high-resolution black-and-white LORRI images colourised with Ralph data collected from the last rotation of Pluto. Colour data being returned by the spacecraft now will update these images, bringing color contrast into sharper focus. Image credits: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI.
NASA’s New Horizons mission has answered one of the most basic questions about Pluto — its size.

Mission scientists have found Pluto to be 1,473 miles (2,370 kilometres) in diameter, somewhat larger than many prior estimates. Images acquired with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were used to make this determination. This result confirms what was already suspected: Pluto is larger than all other known Solar System objects beyond the orbit of Neptune.

“The size of Pluto has been debated since its discovery in 1930. We are excited to finally lay this question to rest,” said mission scientist Bill McKinnon, Washington University, St. Louis.

Pluto’s newly estimated size means that its density is slightly lower than previously thought, and the fraction of ice in its interior is slightly higher. Also, the lowest layer of Pluto’s atmosphere, called the troposphere, is shallower than previously believed.

Pluto (right) and largest moon Charon compared to scale in a composite of separate images taken by New Horizons on 12 July from a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometres). Pluto’s bright, mysterious “heart” is rotating into view, the target of the highest-resolution images that will be taken during the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto on 14 July. The intriguing “bulls-eye” feature at right is rotating out of view, and will not be seen in greater detail. Charon’s newly-discovered system of chasms, larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth, rotates out of view in New Horizons’ sharpest image yet of the Texas-sized moon. It’s trailed by a large equatorial impact crater that is ringed by bright rays of ejected material. In this latest image, the dark north polar region is displaying new and intriguing patterns. Image credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI.
Pluto (right) and largest moon Charon compared to scale in a composite of separate images taken by New Horizons on 12 July from a distance of 1.6 million miles (2.5 million kilometres). Pluto’s bright, mysterious “heart” is rotating into view, the target of the highest-resolution images that will be taken during the spacecraft’s closest approach to Pluto on 14 July. The intriguing “bulls-eye” feature at right is rotating out of view, and will not be seen in greater detail. Charon’s newly-discovered system of chasms, larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth, rotates out of view in New Horizons’ sharpest image yet of the Texas-sized moon. It’s trailed by a large equatorial impact crater that is ringed by bright rays of ejected material. In this latest image, the dark north polar region is displaying new and intriguing patterns. Image credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI.
Measuring Pluto’s size has been a decades-long challenge due to complicating factors from its atmosphere. Its largest moon Charon lacks a substantial atmosphere, and its diameter was easier to determine using ground-based telescopes. New Horizons observations of Charon confirm previous estimates of 751 miles (1208 kilometres) across.
This graphic presents a view of Pluto and Charon as they would appear if placed slightly above Earth's surface and viewed from a great distance. Recent measurements obtained by New Horizons indicate that Pluto has a diameter 18.5% that of Earth's, while Charon has a diameter 9.5% that of Earth's. Image credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI.
This graphic presents a view of Pluto and Charon as they would appear if placed slightly above Earth’s surface and viewed from a great distance. Recent measurements obtained by New Horizons indicate that Pluto has a diameter 18.5% that of Earth’s, while Charon has a diameter 9.5% that of Earth’s. Image credit: NASA-JHUAPL-SWRI.
LORRI has also zoomed in on two of Pluto’s smaller moons, Nix and Hydra.

“We knew from the time we designed our flyby that we would only be able to study the small moons in detail for just a few days before closest approach,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “Now, deep inside Pluto’s sphere of influence, that time has come.”

Nix and Hydra were discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005. Even to Hubble, they appeared as points of light, and that’s how they looked to New Horizons until the final week of its approach to Pluto. Now, the latest LORRI images show the two diminutive satellites not as pinpoints, but as moons seen well enough to measure their sizes. Nix is estimated to be about 20 miles (about 35 kilometres) across, while Hydra is roughly 30 miles (roughly 45 kilometres) across. These sizes lead mission scientists to conclude that their surfaces are quite bright, possibly due to the presence of ice.

What about Pluto’s two smallest moons, Kerberos and Styx? Smaller and fainter than Nix and Hydra, they are harder to measure. Mission scientists should be able to determine their sizes with observations New Horizons will make during the flyby and will transmit to Earth at a later date.