Pluto
Taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, 2015
NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI
The image was in enhanced colour, to illustrate differences in the composition and texture of Pluto’s surface

Pluto, once considered the ninth planet in our solar system, was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2006. Located in the distant regions of the Kuiper Belt, a vast area beyond Neptune, Pluto has a unique and eccentric orbit that takes it closer to the Sun at times. With a diameter of about 1,473 miles (2,377 kilometres), Pluto is significantly smaller than the Earth's moon. Its surface is composed of a mixture of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide ices, giving it a distinctive reddish-brown colour. Pluto has a single large moon, Charon, which is unusually large compared to its parent dwarf planet. Despite its small size and remote location, Pluto has captured the curiosity of scientists and the public alike, leading to various space missions aimed at studying this enigmatic world, such as NASA's New Horizons mission, which provided valuable data and images during its historic flyby in 2015.