how many moons in our solar system are bigger than the planet Pluto?
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Pluto is estimated to have a radius that is no more than 1200 km.\n\nMoons in the solar system that are larger than this organized by planet:\n\nEarth - Moon (1738 km)\nJupiter - Io (1815 km)  \nJupiter - Europa (1570 km)  \nJupiter - Ganymede (2630 km)  \nJupiter - Callisto (2400 km)\nSaturn - Titan (2575 km)\nSaturn - Triton (1350 km)\n\nJust for comparison the largest asteroid in the solar system is Ceres (466 km).\n\nAlso Ganymede and Titan are larger than Mercury (2440 km).
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Pluto, which was discovered in 1930, is but a dot of light in even the largest Earth-based telescopes. Pluto is 2/3 the size of Earth's moon but 1,200 times farther away, which makes viewing surface detail as difficult as trying to read the printing on a golf ball located thirty-three miles away.
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Pluto (planet), ninth planet from the Sun and outermost known member of the solar system. Pluto was discovered as the result of a telescopic search inaugurated in 1905 by the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who conjectured the existence of a distant planet beyond Neptune as the cause of slight perturbations (see Orbit) in the motions of Uranus. Continued by members of the Lowell Observatory staff, the search ended successfully in 1930, when the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh found Pluto near the position Lowell had predicted. The new planet’s mass, however, seemed insufficient to account for the perturbations of Neptune, and the search for a possible tenth planet continues.\n\nPluto revolves about the Sun once in 247.7 years at an average distance of 5.9 billion km (3.67 billion mi). The orbit is so eccentric that at certain points along its path Pluto is closer to the Sun than is Neptune. No possibility of collision exists, however, because Pluto’s orbit is inclined by more than 17.2° to the plane of the ecliptic and never actually crosses Neptune’s path.\n\nVisible only through large telescopes, Pluto is seen to have a yellowish colour. For many years very little was known about the planet, but in 1978 astronomers discovered a relatively large moon orbiting Pluto at a distance of only about 19,000 km (12,000 mi) and named it Charon. The orbits of Pluto and Charon caused them to pass repeatedly in front of one another from 1985 to 1990, enabling astronomers to determine their sizes fairly accurately. Pluto is 2,284 km (1,420 mi) in diameter, and Charon is 1,192 km (740 mi) in diameter, making them even more like a double-planet system than are the Earth and its moon. Pluto was also found to have a thin atmosphere, probably of methane, exerting a pressure on the planet’s surface that is about 100,000 times weaker than the Earth’s atmospheric pressure at sea level. The atmosphere appears to condense and form polar caps during Pluto’s long winter. The first map of Pluto’s surface was made by the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows vague light and dark regions of unknown origin.\n\nWith a density about twice that of water, Pluto is apparently made of much rockier material than are the other planets of the outer solar system. This may be the result of the kind of cold-temperature/low-pressure chemical combinations that took place during the formation of the planet. Some astronomers have suggested that Pluto may be a former satellite of Neptune, knocked into a separate orbit during the early days of the solar system. Charon would then be an accumulation of the lighter materials resulting from the collision.
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The Solar System or solar system[1] comprises the Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 162 known moons,[2] three currently identified dwarf planets and their four known moons, and thousands of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and interplanetary dust.\n\nThe principal component of the Solar System is the Sun or Sol (astronomical symbol ); a main sequence G2 star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally.[3] The Sun's large mass gives it an interior density high enough to sustain nuclear fusion, releasing enormous amounts of energy, most of which is radiated into space in the form of electromagnetic radiation including visible light. Jupiter and Saturn are the Sun's two largest orbiting bodiesand account for more than 90% of the system's remaining mass. (The currently hypothetical Oort cloud would also hold a substantial percentage were its existence confirmed).[4]\n\nIn broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun, four rocky bodies close to it called the terrestrial planets, an inner belt of rocky asteroids, four gas giant planets and an outer belt of small icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt. In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury (), Venus (), Earth (), Mars (), Jupiter (), Saturn (), Uranus (), and Neptune (). All planets but two are in turn orbited by natural satellites (usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon) and every planet past the asteroid belt is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. The planets other than Earth are named after gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology.\n\nFrom 1930 to 2006, Pluto (), the largest known Kuiper belt object, was considered the Solar System's ninth planet. However, in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created an official definition of the term "planet".[5] Under this definition, Pluto is reclassified as a dwarf planet, and there are eight planets in the Solar System. In addition to Pluto, the IAU currently recognizes two other dwarf planets: Ceres (), the largest object in the asteroid belt, and Eris, which lies beyond the Kuiper belt in a region called the scattered disc. Of the known dwarf planets, only Ceres has no moons.\n\nFor many years, the Solar System was the only known example of planets in orbit around a star. The discovery in recent years of many extrasolar planets has led to the term "solar system" being applied generically to all the newly discovered systems. Technically, however, it should strictly refer to Earth's system only, as the word "solar" is derived from the Sun's Latin name, Sol. Other such systems are usually referred to by the names of their parent star: "the Alpha Centauri system" or "the 51 Pegasi system".\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_%28dwarf_planet%29\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto\n\nyou must be asking about "136199 eris", but it is not a planet.  it is about five percent bigger than "134340 pluto", but neither are planets.  the solar system has eight planets.  they are mercury, venus, earth, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune.\n\n"136199 eris" and "134340 pluto" do orbit the sun, are ball-shaped, do not have an isolated orbit (a bunch of other similar bodies have similar orbits.), and are not a satellites so they are not a planets.\n\non 24 august 2006, the international astronomical union decided that pluto should not be categorized as a planet.  i have been waiting for this since i was about ten when i learned that pluto didn't fit the pattern set by the major bodies in the solar system so it was an anomaly. it just felt "out of place". now that astronomers have found hundreds of other bodies with similar orbits, classifying "134340 pluto" as a planet is even more irrational. i feel somewhat satisfied, but i don't know how long this will drag on tho. many planetary astronomers are satisfied that the definition is rigorous enuf. i can accept that the definition is flawed, but i can not accept that "134340 pluto" is a planet.\n\nthis was the right thing to do, believe me. this does not change anything about pluto or the solar system. this just corrects the mistake of classifying pluto as a planet initially.\n\nmany astronomers consider pluto and charon to be a binary system, but two small bodies orbit that system. they are called nix and hydra.\n\nincidentally, "134340 pluto" was never a moon of neptune. neptune did capture triton. this is why triton has a retrograde orbit.
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well, scientists are redefining the word "planet", so pluto might get excluded as a planet, and we might have only 8, or if pluto is a planet, 8 other bodies will be planets. so there could be 17 planets
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The last time I checked there were still 9 planets and they were considering maybe adding a 10th. Pluto is a planet with a moon of it's own named Charon. Astronomers have also identified a couple of other large bodies orbiting beyond Pluto. It has been suggested that there could be two planetoids beyond Pluto that revolve around each other.
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I'll assume you meant "in the solar system"\n\n -  "pluto" isn't a planet! It's just a big block of dirty ice...\n\n -  The biggest planet is Jupiter, and is made of gas.\n\n -  The smallest would be mercury, which is right next to the sun.\n\n -  It would be hard to say which planet is "medem", since there are really big planets (the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), and really small ones: (the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Moon, and Mars)
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In our Solar System?  Unlikely.  There are a bunch of things orbiting beyond Pluto that are bigger than it that could be considered planets if size were everything... although Pluto is just a large Comet that orbits on the inside of the Oort cloud.  \n\nIf there was anything beyond Neptune of any consequential size, chances are we would have detected it by now.
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Nice links. I would think that Pluto is still a planet. Its mean radius relative to earth's radius is approximately 0.46. So the diameter at equator might be some 3600 miles. By comparison, a satellite like Nereid, which orbits the planet Neptune, is no more than 200 miles in diameter. At its size Pluto must be a planet.\nI am not sure about Sedna. If we think about the 10-th planet, or the "X" planet, it was thought to be three times as massive as Saturn, and nearly six billion miles from the earth. It looks to me that Sedna might not be our 10-th planet. But then again, perhaps we just have to wait and see.
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Because there are still arguments whether Pluto is actually a planet, "Sedna" is larger than Pluto. But I believe the argument stems from sheer distance from the Sun, it is more of a rogue body.
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Jupiter is the largest planet in this solar system overall, but Earth is the biggest non-gas planet.
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As of right now we don't know sizes of other planets outside our solar system.\n\n But, Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. With an equatorial diameter of 143,884 km, (89,405 miles), it is as wide as more than 11 Earths stacked side by side. The planet also has the shortest period of rotation - Jupiter days last just under ten hours.
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The size wise order of the planets in our Solar system is as follows:-\n1) Jupiter, 2) Saturn,3) Uranus or Herschel,4) Neptune\n5) Earth, 6) Venus, 7)Mars,8)Mercury,9)Pluto.\nThe largest is Jupiter and the smallest is Pluto. Our moon is a natural satellite of the earth and not an independent planet. It is smaller than Pluto.
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THere is an argument among astromoners as to whether classify the bodies beyond pluto as planets... consider that in the asteroid belt there are many objects orbiting the sun... do we call them all planets?\n\nCurrently there are officially only 9 planets:\nMercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
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Yes there are nine in our solar system, and as someone else mentioned Pluto is not really meeting the requirements to be defined as a planet. But the problem is rewriting the history books which won't happen so they will leave it as a planet... a "historical planet".\n\nIf we are talking about all known planets we have discovered, there are many. Extra solar planets have been found around distant stars for several years now. Not actually seen but found by measuring that planets gravitational pull on it's star. Of course we can't get an accurate count of all planets in the universe but we can use the "Drake Equation" to get a good idea.\n\nThe Drake Equation is:\n\nN = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL\n\nN* represents the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy \nAnswer: Current estimates are 100 billion.\n \nfp is the fraction of stars that have planets around them \nAnswer: Current estimates range from 20% to 50%.\n\nForget about the rest of the equation because it doesn't apply (looking for intelligent life)\nKeep in mind this equation is for our galaxy. They estimate 100 billion Galaxy's in our Universe (not to mention other planets that exist in other dimensions that we have discovered as a result of trying to solve the "unified theory" of everything) so…\n\nYou do the math!!!
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Jupiter has 63 moons, Saturn 56, Uranus 27 and Neptune 13.\n\nSaturn's ring system is best known and the most prominent. Though all four gas giants have rings. Though this is not well known.\n\nI suspect you are working from old information. i.e. out-of-date totals of moons and rings that have since been surpassed by further discoveries. That makes it a bit of detective work as to which planet's historical record you have been reading.\n\nSATURN  \n\nIn 1980 Voyager 1 increased the number of known Saturnian moons from 11 to 19. With Atlas being Saturn XV to be discovered. There appear to be 12 major rings (but many minor ones) and two of those are of recent discovery so perhaps your sources have not caught up with the latest Huygens-Cassini flybys and Hubble telescope surveys,\n\nNEPTUNE\n\nhas five, possibly six other rings and four ring arcs (incomplete rings) within the Adams ring. In order outwards:\n\nGalle \nuncertain    \nLeVerrier \nLassell  \nArago  \nunnamed    \nAdams \n\nArcs in Adams Ring \nFraternité  \nÉgalité  \nLiberté  \nCourage \n\nIn addition to its 13 moons, as of November 2006, there are five known Trojan asteroids of Neptune which have the same orbital period as the planet. They lie in the elongated, curved regions around the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points 60° ahead of and behind Neptune. These are 2001 QR322, 2004 UP10, 2005 TN53, 2005 TO74 and 2006 RJ103. But these are not moons: they rotate with the planet around the Sun.\n\nURANUS\n\nFive large moons (Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel and Miranda) were known in 1948. The flyby of the Voyager 2 space probe in January 1986 led to the discovery of a further 10 inner moons, bringing the total to 15. But 12 more have emerged since then.\n\nWikipedia lists 13 Uranian rings and NASA lists 10, but both state that two further rings were then found in 2005.\n\nJUPITER\n\nhas too few rings to meet the description provided.\n\nThe main ring is made of dust from the satellites Adrastea and Metis. \n\nInside the main ring is a torus of faint particles known as the halo. The gas torus consists of ions generated by Io's vulcanism that contributes significantly to radiation levels in Jupiter's vicinity.\n\nTwo wide gossamer rings encircle the main ring, originating from Thebe and Amalthea. \n\nFinally, there is a distant and very faint outer ring circling Jupiter backwards—retrograde of its spin. It is not known for sure where the material for this outer ring comes from, but it may be captured interplanetary dust.\n\nCONCLUSON\n\nAs Jupiter has too few rings and Neptune too few moons, you must mean Uranus or Saturn,\n\nI incline towards Uranus as its total of moons stopped at 15, and according to one account its total of rings stopped at 10 for a few years.