Uploaded July 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Pluto is super far away, but it's way brighter out there than you'd think! This is Pluto in a Minute.
Pluto rotates on its axis just like the Earth does, which means that Pluto has days just like Earth. However, they are slightly longer days. A day on Pluto lasts 6.4 Earth days which is about 153 hours. And just like on Earth, the lengths of the days on Pluto vary depending on your latitude, that is, how close to one of the poles you are.
Pluto's axis is actually tilted. From New Horizons' perspective in all the pictures that you're seeing, the north pole is actually tilted slightly towards spacecraft; you can see it about 1/3 or 1/4 of the way down the planet in these images. That means some spots on Pluto have longer days and even continuous days while others spots have very short days or no day at all. And the constant light or constant dark areas change depending on where Pluto is in its orbit.
And even though Pluto is 3 billion miles from the Earth it's a lot brighter at mid Pluto day that you might think. If you want to find out how bright it is, you can do that.
Go to solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime. From there, you can enter where you live and it will tell you at your local time what the equivalent brightness is as noon on Pluto. So definitely go check out what Pluto Time looks like in you time zone. Set an alarm on your phone, and when it goes off, hop outside and take a selfie, and tweet it with the hashtag #PlutoTime and #PlutoFlyby. And of course, tweet your question using those hashtags as well.
For more news on Pluto be sure to checkout the New Horizons websites, and be sure to come back tomorrow for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
Pluto is super far away, but it's way brighter out there than you'd think! This is Pluto in a Minute.
Pluto rotates on its axis just like the Earth does, which means that Pluto has days just like Earth. However, they are slightly longer days. A day on Pluto lasts 6.4 Earth days which is about 153 hours. And just like on Earth, the lengths of the days on Pluto vary depending on your latitude, that is, how close to one of the poles you are.
Pluto's axis is actually tilted. From New Horizons' perspective in all the pictures that you're seeing, the north pole is actually tilted slightly towards spacecraft; you can see it about 1/3 or 1/4 of the way down the planet in these images. That means some spots on Pluto have longer days and even continuous days while others spots have very short days or no day at all. And the constant light or constant dark areas change depending on where Pluto is in its orbit.
And even though Pluto is 3 billion miles from the Earth it's a lot brighter at mid Pluto day that you might think. If you want to find out how bright it is, you can do that.
Go to solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime. From there, you can enter where you live and it will tell you at your local time what the equivalent brightness is as noon on Pluto. So definitely go check out what Pluto Time looks like in you time zone. Set an alarm on your phone, and when it goes off, hop outside and take a selfie, and tweet it with the hashtag #PlutoTime and #PlutoFlyby. And of course, tweet your question using those hashtags as well.
For more news on Pluto be sure to checkout the New Horizons websites, and be sure to come back tomorrow for more Pluto in a Minute.
nasa.gov/newhorizons
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu
