• Question: How far from Sun is Pluto?

    Asked by Ellis to Lisa, Mark, Rachel, Sammie, Stephen, Tim on 5 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Mark Mirmelstein

      Mark Mirmelstein answered on 5 Mar 2018:

      One of the reasons Pluto is no longer defined as a planet but a dwarf planet is that its orbit around the Sun is very eccentric and not as circular as planets’ orbits are. This means that the distance between Pluto and the Sun varies quite a lot throughout Pluto’s orbit around the Sun.

      At the closest point, Pluto is about 29.66 AU (1 AU is one astronomical unit, defined as the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, and is equal to about 150,000,000 kilometres), or 4,437,100,000 kilometres away from the Sun.

      At the farthest point, Pluto is about 49.31 AU away from the Sun, or 7,376,700,000 kilometres.

Comments