Translations:AY Honors/Stars/Planet characteristics/12/en

Pluto is no longer considered a planet by astronomers, though it was classed as one between its discovery in 1930 and 2006 when it was reclassified a dwarf planet. It has an eccentric orbit that is highly inclined with respect to the other planets and takes it closer to the Sun than Neptune during a portion of its orbit. It is much smaller than any of the eight planets and indeed is smaller than several of their moons, including Earth's moon. Pluto itself has a large moon named Charon; two small moons were discovered in 2005, and their names (Hydra and Nix) were announced in June 2006. Through the use of the Hubble Space Telescope, Pluto's fourth moon was discovered between the orbits of Nix and Hydra. Without a formal name as yet it is designated as S/2011 (134340 Pluto) or simply the nickname P4.