Discovered
in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Charon discovered at USNO in 1978.
Pluto:
radius = 1145km, mass = 0.002 Earths, density = 2.1x water
Charon:
radius = 600 km, mass = 0.1-0.2 Plutos
Pluto was closer than Neptune in the late 1990s, but
never crosses Neptune’s actual path (2:3 orbital resonance, tilted).
Adaptive Optics image
Image on left
from HST, on right from AO on ground. Pluto goes around twice while Neptune
goes around 3 times, but inclination means they won’t collide.