Jim Scott, age 12., of Spokane, Washington, for his question:

Does Pluto have a moon?

So far as we know, the planet Pluto has three moons. However, the little fella is so small that he shows up in telescope pictures as a mere pinpoint. Pluto’s  moons, must be smaller than its parent planet. The moons of Mars are merely a few hundred miles in diameter.

Pluto has three known moons, Hydra and Nix, as well as its companion moon, Charon. At about 1,186 km (737 miles), Charon's diameter is a little more than half of Pluto's.

Some believe Pluto broke away from another planet, if this is true, he broke away and started his own orbit around the sun which makes the lonely little fella at the outside edge of our solar System a planet in his own right.  Today Pluto is considered a minor planet.  The following are the latest statistics on Pluto.

Pluto Statistics (minor planet)

Planetary Symbol: Name in Roman/Greek Mythology: Pluto / Hades

Diameter: 2,390 km (1,485 miles)

[0.187 x Earth's] Orbital Semi-major Axis: (average distance from Sun) 39.48 AU

(Earth = 1 AU)

Mass: 12.5 x 1021 kilograms (0.0021 x Earth's)

Orbital Eccentricity: 0.2488

Density: 1,750 kg/m3 (0.317 x Earth's)

Maximum Distance from Sun: 49.31 AU ( 7.376 billion km or 4.583 billion miles )

Surface Gravity: 0.58 m/s2 (0.06 x Earth's)

Minimum Distance from Sun: 29.66 AU ( 4.437 billion km or 2.757 billion miles )

Surface Temperature: 40 to 50 K ( -233° to -223° C or -387° to -369° F )

Minimum Distance from Earth: 28.6 AU ( 4.28 billion km or 2.66 billion miles )

Tilt of Axis: 123degrees Orbital Inclination: (tilt of orbit plane) 17.16°

Rotation Period about Axis:(length of Pluto's day) 6.387 days (retrograde)

Revolution Period about the Sun: (length of Pluto's year) 248 years

Satellites: 3 known