A Dwarf Planet Smaller Than the Russian Border
Russia consumes more physical space on our map than the entire surface of Pluto.
If you laid the entire surface of Pluto out flat, it would fail to cover the country of Russia. The dwarf planet measures roughly 6.4 million square miles, while the Russian Federation stretches across 6.6 million square miles.
Pluto is so narrow that it could fit comfortably within the borders of the United States. If you drove a car from the East Coast to the West Coast, you would travel further than the distance across Pluto’s diameter.
Despite its planetary status for decades, Pluto is essentially a speck of ice. Its mass is so low that it accounts for only 0.07 times the mass of the other objects in its orbit. Gravity holds it in a sphere, but its total real estate is smaller than the landmass of South America.
While Pluto is smaller than a single nation on Earth, its largest moon, Charon, is half the size of the planet itself. This creates a gravitational tug-of-war that makes the two bodies dance around a point in empty space, technically making them a double-planet system.
The Massive Gas Giant That Naturally Floats
If you could find a bathtub wide enough to hold it, the planet Saturn would bob on the surface like a cork.
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