How Cold Is Pluto?
QUICK ANSWER
Pluto averages about -380°F (-229°C), one of the coldest surfaces in our solar system. The temperature is cold enough to freeze nitrogen and methane solid, which is why Pluto has nitrogen ice glaciers and methane snow. Surface temperatures vary as Pluto's distance from the Sun changes over its long orbit.
Pluto is brutally cold, averaging close to -380°F. At those temperatures, the chemistry of Pluto's surface is dominated by ices that don't exist as ices on Earth, including nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. The cold is responsible for both Pluto's striking landscape and the strange seasonal cycles that play out across its long orbit.
How cold does Pluto get?
Average temperatures around -380°F (-229°C). According to NASA, Pluto's surface ranges from about -400°F at the coldest to about -360°F at the warmest, depending on location and where Pluto is in its orbit. The temperatures are cold enough that nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide all freeze solid on Pluto's surface. Earth's coldest natural temperatures (around -130°F at the South Pole) are tropical by comparison. Pluto receives so little sunlight that the surface barely warms at all.
Why is Pluto so cold?
Distance from the Sun. Pluto orbits an average of 3.7 billion miles from the Sun, about 40 times farther than Earth. Sunlight intensity drops with the square of distance, so at Pluto's average distance, sunlight is about 1/1,600th as intense as at Earth. Even at perihelion, when Pluto is closest to the Sun, the planet receives less than 1 percent of the sunlight Earth gets. The thin atmosphere can't trap much heat, so most of what little solar energy reaches Pluto radiates straight back into space.
Does Pluto's temperature change?
Yes, more than you might expect. Pluto's elliptical orbit means its distance from the Sun varies by nearly 2 billion miles, which significantly affects how much solar energy the planet receives. At perihelion, Pluto is warmer and its surface ices vaporize into a thicker atmosphere. At aphelion, the atmosphere freezes back onto the surface, redistributing nitrogen and other materials. The cycle plays out over Pluto's 248-year orbit, with each season lasting decades. New Horizons captured Pluto near perihelion in 2015, when it was warmer and atmospherically active.
What weather does Pluto have?
Subtle but real. Pluto has a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide that supports light snowfall and possible weather patterns. New Horizons detected high-altitude haze layers, evidence of methane snow, and signs of glacial flow involving nitrogen ice. The most famous feature, Tombaugh Regio (the heart-shaped region), is a vast plain of nitrogen ice that flows and convects like an extremely slow glacier. Pluto's geological activity is much more dynamic than expected for such a small, cold body.
Pluto averages around -380°F, cold enough to freeze nitrogen and methane solid into the surface. The temperature changes over Pluto's 248-year orbit as the planet moves closer to and farther from the Sun. The cold drives a slow but real seasonal cycle, with nitrogen ice flowing across the surface and the atmosphere thickening and thinning over decades. Pluto is one of the coldest places in our solar system, but it's not frozen in time.
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