With the New Horizons probe putting Pluto back in the news, just how big is it?
The map above shows that Pluto really isn’t that big, at least in comparison to Alaska (admittedly the largest state).
Here are a few facts about size:
- Alaska: 1,717,854 sq km (663,267 sq mi)
- Pluto: 16,647,940 sq km (6,427,806 sq mi)
- Russia: 17,098,242 sq km (6,592,800 sq mi)
- Earth’s Moon: 38 million sq km (14.6 million sq mi)
- Asia: 44,579,000 sq km (17,212,000 sq mi)
So while Pluto may be 10X bigger than Alaska, it actually has slightly less surface area than Russia, which in turn has about half the area of Earth’s moon, but yet the Moon still has less surface area than Asia.
All that’s to say that Pluto is actually pretty big, just not as big as some other really big places.
Have any comments? Leave them below:
JSintheStates says
You know, you can see Russia from Pluto…
Frost Marvel says
* Slow clap * I tip my hat to you.
Paul Meadow says
Next time you decide to ‘borrow’ someone else’s map – give them credit.
Brilliant Maps says
Hi Paul, we gave credit to the reddit user immedietly below the picture. If they are not the original creator, please let me know and I’ll update.