INSIGHT UPSC QUIZ

ANS. (C) 
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System (after Eris) and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun. Originally classified as the ninth planet from the Sun, Pluto was recategorized as a dwarf planet and plutoid owing to the discovery that it is only one of several large bodies within the Kuiper belt. Like other members of the Kuiper belt, Pluto is composed primarily of rock and ice and is relatively small, approximately one-sixth the mass of the Earth’s Moon and one-third its volume. It has an eccentric and highly inclined orbit that takes it from 30 to 49 AU (4.4–7.4 billion km) from the Sun. This causes Pluto to periodically come closer to the Sun than Neptune. Pluto gets as close as 4.44 billion km. But its orbit is so elliptical that it gets out to a distance of 7.38 billion km. In fact, there are times in Pluto’s orbit when Neptune passes it. Then Neptune really is the farthest planet from the Sun.