Pluto orbits the sun at a distance that varies from 4.4 to 7.4 billion kilometers (2.7 to 4.6 billion miles). In comparison, the Earth orbits at only around 150 million kilometers from the Sun. Because of the greater distance, Pluto takes around 248 Earth years to complete a single orbit of the sun. Since Pluto was officially discovered in 1930, it has only completed around a third of its total orbit since discovery.
Pluto was originally considered a planet, but in 2006 was reclassified as a “dwarf-planet” after it was discovered that there were several other objects of a similar or larger size in orbit. Eris, another dwarf planet which is currently thought to be larger than Pluto, takes 558 years to orbit the sun.
More about Pluto:
- It takes an average of 5 and a half hours for light from the sun to reach Pluto. The same light reaches Earth in just 8.3 minutes.
- Pluto is about 66% of the size of Earth's moon, but has five moons of its own.
- The name "Pluto", after the Roman god of the underworld, was suggested by Venetia Burney, who was 11 years old at the time.