No. Pluto is smaller than Earth’s Moon. Pluto is about 2,377 kilometers across, while the Moon is about 3,475 kilometers wide, so Pluto’s diameter is roughly 68 percent of the Moon’s.
Diameter is not mass
Pluto and the Moon differ in both size and composition. Pluto is icy and rocky, with a thick variety of frozen surface materials; our Moon has a primarily rocky surface shaped by impacts and ancient volcanism.
Why Pluto looks so impressive in photos
NASA’s New Horizons images show tall mountains, glaciers and broad plains. A world’s geological diversity is not determined solely by its place on a size chart.
Pluto is far more distant
The Moon orbits Earth at an average distance of about 384,400 kilometers. Pluto typically orbits billions of kilometers from the Sun, making spacecraft observations much harder.
What about Charon?
Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, is around half Pluto’s diameter. That is exceptionally large for a moon relative to its parent body, which is why the two are sometimes described informally as a double-world system.
Frequently asked question
Does being smaller than our Moon make Pluto a moon?
No. Pluto orbits the Sun and is a dwarf planet; a natural moon orbits another larger body.
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