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How far is Pluto from Earth right now?

How far Pluto is from Earth right now is the centre-to-centre distance below, computed in this browser. NASA’s range is 4,284.7 million km to 7,528.0 million km. Pluto is a dwarf planet still climbing outward from its 1989 perihelion.

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Computing the distance from your device’s clock…

Why the distance changes

Pluto’s orbit runs from 4,435 million km at perihelion to 7,304 million km at aphelion, tilted about 17° to the ecliptic. NASA’s Pluto Fact Sheet lists the distance from Earth as 4,284.7 million km at minimum and 7,528.0 million km at maximum. Pluto passed perihelion in 1989 and is still climbing outward, so a date in the 2020s sits between those extremes, nearer 36 AU than 30.

Pluto is not in the JPL 3000 BC–3000 AD planet table used for the eight planets on the distance table. This page uses the J2000 mean elements and centennial rates in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac (1992, Table 5.8.1), a 250-year fit to DE200, and allows about 2 million km. Neptune’s pull is only averaged into those linear rates, so this is not a Horizons ephemeris. Light takes about 4 hours at the near end of NASA’s range and about 7 hours at the far end.

Other distances

Back to every body on the distance table. The same clock also fills these pages:

• Sun
• Moon
• Mercury
• Venus
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

Frequently asked questions

How far is Pluto from Earth right now?

The figure is the centre-to-centre distance at the time shown, computed in your browser. It uses the J2000 mean elements and centennial rates in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac, a 250-year fit to DE200, and allows about 2 million km. It is not a JPL Horizons ephemeris.

Is Pluto a planet?

The International Astronomical Union classed Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006. It remains in the 3D explorer. Its distance is tracked here because people still ask how far away it is, and because that distance swings more than Neptune’s.

What is the closest and farthest Pluto gets from Earth?

NASA’s Pluto Fact Sheet lists 4,284.7 million km and 7,528.0 million km. From the Sun, perihelion is 4,435 million km and aphelion is 7,304 million km. The most recent perihelion was in 1989.

Why is this distance less precise than Mars?

Mars uses a JPL element set with a published nominal error of about 30,000 km. Pluto’s Keplerian fit folds Neptune’s pull into straight-line rates, so the 2 million km allowance on this page is for the present era. It is not a guarantee for dates centuries away.

Sources: Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac (1992), K. P. Seidelmann, ed., Table 5.8.1, for the J2000 mean elements and centennial rates · NASA Pluto Fact Sheet for the 4,284.7 and 7,528.0 million km Earth range and the perihelion and aphelion.