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TimezoneEurope/London
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Transit: 13:02 
Sunset: 21:19
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Dwarf Planets and Asteroids » 

Pluto

Above the horizon.  Rise: 23:22 | Tran: 3:16 | Set: 7:05
Alt: 6.35°   Az: 140.50°   Direction: South-West

Pluto is in the constellation of Capricornus, at a distance of 5,146,896,032.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 20h 25m 56s and the Declination is -23° 01’ 11” (apparent coordinates). The magnitude of Pluto is 14.46.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of Pluto in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

Star map showing the position of Pluto in the constellation of Capricornus on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.
Star map showing the position of Pluto in the constellation of Capricornus on F, d Y. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive star map.

The following map uses photographic imagery from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) to realistically visualize the precise position of Pluto against the stars in the background. The horizontal size of the map measures 60 arcminutes. Click on the image to access a more detailed full-screen view.

Pluto
RA: 20h 24m 26s
Dec: -23° 06’ 13”
Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of Pluto. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

20h 25m 56s
-23° 01’ 11”
21h 06m 28s
17h 32m 24s

J2000

20h 24m 26s
-23° 06’ 13”

Additional Information

Capricornus
14.46

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of Pluto from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 113.0°
Max altitude: 15.5°
Azimuth: 247.0°

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of Pluto from Earth is currently 5,146,896,032.0 kilometers, equivalent to 34.4048749352 Astronomical Units. Light takes 4h 46m 8.197s to travel from Pluto and arrive to us.

5,146,896,032.0
34.4048749352
4h 46m 8.197s

The following graph shows the distance of Pluto from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance is measured in Astronomical Units and the data is sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of Pluto from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
Note: The values in this chart may not be entirely accurate around the time of closest approach for objects passing very close to Earth at high speed (e.g., Near-Earth Objects).

The value of the distance of Pluto from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the live position tracker.

Closest Approach to Earth

In the period between January 1, 1900 and December 29, 2099, the closest approach of Pluto to Earth happened on Tuesday 8 May 1990 at a distance of 28.686952 Astronomical Units, or 4,291,506,906 kilometers:

Tuesday 8 May 1990
4,291,506,906
28.686952

Note: the values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart shows the light curve of Pluto, i.e., its apparent magnitude as a function of time. The curve is calculated using the latest ephemerides provided by JPL Horizons. The magnitude data is sampled with the interval of 2 days. Because of this sampling, inaccuracies may occur for objects that have large variations of brightness over a few days. For comets, large discrepancies can arise between the calculated brightness and the observations due to their highly dynamic, and not always precisely predictable, behavior.

Chart of the magnitude of Pluto as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of Pluto at epoch July, 18 2016 00:00 UTC (JD: 2457588.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element Symbol Value
Orbit eccentricity e 0.25183788
Orbit inclination i 17.14771141°
Perihelion distance q 29.61871297 AU
4,430,896,403 km
Aphelion distance Q 49.55854580 AU
7,413,852,941 km
Semi-major axis a 39.58862939 AU
5,922,374,672 km
Orbital period period 249.0944 years
90,981.7165 days
Date of perihelion transit Tp October 12, 1989
2,447,812.0942 JD
Next perihelion transit November 18, 2238
2,538,793.8106 JD
Argument of perihelion peri 113.70900151586°
Longitude of the ascending node node 110.29238405431°
Mean anomaly M 38.683663473182°
Mean motion n 0.00395684°/day

Physical Properties

The table below lists the known key physical properties of Pluto. The source for this data is the JPL Small-Body Database.

Physical Parameter Value Relative to Earth
Diameter 2302 km 0.1807
Mass 0.01309 x 1024 kg 0.0022
Density 2.05 gr/cm3 0.3718
Escape Velocity 1.23 km/s 0.1099
Sideral Rotation -153.2928 hours -6.4047
Absolute Magnitude -1
Geometric Albedo 0.3

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Pluto computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date Right AscensionR.A. DeclinationDec. MagnitudeMag Constellation
Jun 17 2025 20h 26m 32s -22° 57’ 56” 14.47 Capricornus
Jun 18 2025 20h 26m 27s -22° 58’ 20” 14.47 Capricornus
Jun 19 2025 20h 26m 24s -22° 58’ 45” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 20 2025 20h 26m 20s -22° 59’ 09” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 21 2025 20h 26m 15s -22° 59’ 33” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 22 2025 20h 26m 10s -22° 59’ 58” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 23 2025 20h 26m 06s -23° 00’ 22” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 24 2025 20h 26m 01s -23° 00’ 47” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 25 2025 20h 25m 56s -23° 01’ 11” 14.46 Capricornus
Jun 26 2025 20h 25m 51s -23° 01’ 37” 14.45 Capricornus
Jun 27 2025 20h 25m 46s -23° 02’ 02” 14.45 Capricornus
Jun 28 2025 20h 25m 41s -23° 02’ 28” 14.45 Capricornus
Jun 29 2025 20h 25m 36s -23° 02’ 53” 14.45 Capricornus
Jun 30 2025 20h 25m 31s -23° 03’ 18” 14.45 Capricornus

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