--- title: Pluto the Dog Has Appeared on Pluto the Planet description: Twitter seems to think that one of the biggest discoveries from NASA's Pluto photos is the presence of Pluto himself — the dog, that is. canonical: https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/ author: Joanna Plucinska article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-15T02:35:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:33.646Z article:section: Science og:title: Pluto the Dog Has Appeared on Pluto the Planet og:description: Appropriately, given that the character was named after the dwarf planet og:url: https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pluto the Dog Has Appeared on Pluto the Planet twitter:description: Appropriately, given that the character was named after the dwarf planet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Pluto the Dog Has Appeared on Pluto the Planet ## Video: How to Hunt for New Earths [Watch (HLS stream): How to Hunt for New Earths](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HM12kMGN.m3u8) (5:05)  _Published 2013-04-18. At the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i, planet hunters focus their powerful telescope to search for earth-like exoplanets._ by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jul 15, 2015 2:35 AM UTC by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jul 15, 2015 2:35 AM UTC > [](https://twitter.com/Disney/status/621040374744752130) Twitter seems to think that one of the biggest discoveries from NASA’s Pluto photos is the presence of Pluto himself — the dog, that is. A lighter patch on the planet happens to be in the shape of what looks like the ear and the face of the Disney dog—which couldn’t be more appropriate, given that the character was originally named after the dwarf planet. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/"},"headline":"Pluto the Dog Has Appeared on Pluto the Planet","datePublished":"2015-07-15T02:35:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:33.646Z","description":"Appropriately, given that the character was originally named after the heavenly body","url":"https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/","keywords":["Space","NASA","Disney","Pluto","New Horizons"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/","name":"Pluto the Dog Has Appeared on Pluto the Planet"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How to Hunt for New Earths","description":"At the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i, planet hunters focus their powerful telescope to search for earth-like exoplanets.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HM12kMGN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-04-18T22:25:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HM12kMGN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/","duration":"PT5M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3958205/pluto-the-dog-disney-nasa/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```