What Is Dwarf Planet?

Dwarf planets share many of the same characteristics as planets though there is one significant
difference. The International Astronomical Unions definition of a dwarf planet is:

A dwarf planet is a celestial body that

(a) is in orbit around the Sun,

(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic
equilibrium (nearly round) shape,

(c) has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit, and

(d) is not a satellite.

Sizes Of The Dwarf Planets

The largest dwarf planet in the solar system is Pluto followed by Eris, Makemake, Haumea, with the
smallest being Ceres. The order of the dwarf planets from closest to Sun outwards is Ceres, Pluto,
Haumea, Makemake, with Eris being the furthest from the Sun.
PLUTO

Discovered in 1930, Pluto is the second closest dwarf planet to the Sun and was at one point classified as
the ninth planet. Pluto is the largest dwarf planet but only the second most massive, with Eris being the
most massive.

Facts about Pluto

Pluto is named after the Greek god of the underworld.

This is a later name for the more well known Hades and was proposed by Venetia Burney an eleven year
old schoolgirl from Oxford, England.

Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006.

This is when the IAU formalized the definition of a planet as A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in
orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it
assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its
orbit.

Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930 by the Lowell Observatory.

For the 76 years between Pluto being discovered and the time it was reclassified as a dwarf planet it
completed under a third of its orbit around the Sun.

Pluto has five known moons.

The moons are Charon (discovered in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both discovered in 2005), Kerberos
originally P4 (discovered 2011) and Styx originally P5 (discovered 2012) official designations S/2011
(134340) 1 and S/2012 (134340) 1.

Pluto is the largest dwarf planet.

At one point it was thought this could be Eris. Currently the most accurate measurements give Eris an
average diameter of 2,326km with a margin of error of 12km, while Plutos diameter is 2,372km with a
2km margin of error.

Pluto is one third water.

This is in the form of water ice which is more than 3 times as much water as in all the Earths oceans, the
remaining two thirds are rock. Plutos surface is covered with ices, and has several mountain ranges, light
and dark regions, and a scattering of craters.

Pluto is smaller than a number of moons.

These are Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, Europa, Triton, and the Earths moon. Pluto has 66% of the
diameter of the Earths moon and 18% of its mass. While it is now confirmed that Pluto is the largest
dwarf planet for around 10 years it was thought that this was Eris.

Pluto has a eccentric and inclined orbit.

This takes it between 4.4 and 7.3 billion km from the Sun meaning Pluto is periodically closer to the Sun
than Neptune.

Pluto has been visited by one spacecraft.

The New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched in 2006, flew by Pluto on the 14th of July 2015 and
took a series of images and other measurements. New Horizons is now on its way to the Kuiper Belt to
explore even more distant objects.

Plutos location was predicted by Percival Lowell in 1915.

The prediction came from deviations he initially observed in 1905 in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune.
 Pluto sometimes has an atmosphere.

When Pluto elliptical orbit takes it closer to the Sun, its surface ice thaws and forms a thin atmosphere
primarily of nitrogen which slowly escapes the planet. It also has a methane haze that overs about 161
kilometers above the surface. The methane is dissociated by sunlight into hydrocarbons that fall to the
surface and coat the ice with a dark covering. When Pluto travels away from the Sun the atmosphere
then freezes back to its solid state.

CERES

Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun and is located in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter,
making it the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. Ceres is the smallest of the bodies current
classified as dwarf planets with a diameter of 950km.

Facts About The Dwarf Planet Ceres

Ceres was the first object considered to be an asteroid.

The first visit to Ceres is due in 2015.

NASAs Dawn spacecraft has been making its way to Ceres from the asteroid Vesta since September
2012. There is high interest in this mission since Ceres will be the first Dwarf Planet visited by a
spacecraft and is one possible destination for human colonisation given its abundance of ice, water, and
minerals.

Ceres has a mysterious white spot.

This can be seen in both the old Hubble images and the more recent photos taken by the Dawn
spacecraft on its approach.

Every second Ceres loses 6kg of its mass in steam.

Plumes of water vapor shooting up from Ceres surface were observed by the Herschel Space Telescope
this was the first definitive observation of water vapor in the asteroid belt. Its thought this is caused
when portions of Ceres icy surface warm.

Ceres accounts for one third of the mass in the asteroid belt.

Despite this it is still the smallest and least massive of the dwarf planets.

For roughly the first 50 years after its discovery Ceres was frequently referred to as a planet.

By the end of 1851 14 other similar objects had been discovered and it did not take long before these
instead became known as minor planets. Ceres was eventually reclassified as a Dwarf Planet alongside
Pluto in 2006.

Ceres is the only dwarf planet with no moons.

The other dwarf planets; Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris all have at least one moon.

HAUMEA
Haumea is the third closest dwarf planet from the Sun and is unique in its elongated shape making it the
least spherical of the dwarf planets.

Facts about The Dwarf Planet Haumea

A day on Haumea lasts 3.9 hours.

Haumeas characteristic extreme elongation is probably caused by its rotation, which is so rapid it turned
it into an ellipsoid. Its rotational speed as well as its collisional origin also makes Haumea one of the
densest dwarf planets discovered to date.

Haumea has a spot.

In 2009 a dark red spot was discovered which stands out from surrounding crystalline ice. Its thought
this spot could be an area of the dwarf planet that is with a higher concentration of minerals and carbon
rich compounds than the rest of the icy surface.

MAKEMAKE
Makemake is the second furthest dwarf planet from the Sun and is the third largest dwarf planet in the
solar system. Makemake was discovered on March 31st 2005 and was recognized as a dwarf planet by
the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in July 2008. Until April 2016 Makemake was thought to be
the only one of the four outer dwarf planets to not have any moons.

Facts about The Dwarf Planet Makemake

Makemake could have been discovered earlier.

Makemake is the second brightest Kuiper Belt object after Pluto, theoretically Clyde Tombaugh (discover
of Pluto) could have detected it during his search for trans-Neptunian planets around 1930. However
Makemake would have been almost impossible to find against the dense background of stars of the
Milky Way.

Makemake has one moon.

Discovered in April 2016 and nicknamed MK 2 (designation S/2015 (136472) 1) it is estimated to be 160
km in diameter. The moon was spotted about 20,000 km from Makemake in observations made by the
Hubble Space Telescope. Satellites offer an easy method to measure an object mass, so before the
moons discovery Makemakes mass could only be estimated.

Makemake lacks its expected atmosphere.

Astronomers thought Makemake would have developed an atmosphere similar to Plutos, its chance
passing in front of a bright star in 2011 revealed it mostly lacks a gas envelope. If present, Makemakes
atmosphere would likley be methane and nitrogen-based.

Makemake is a classical Kuiper belt object.

This means its orbit lies far enough from Neptune to not be significantly affected by Neptunes gravity
(unlike Pluto) and will remain stable over the age of the Solar System,

Makemake was named three years after its discovery in 2008.

The name comes from the the creator of humanity and god of fertility in the mythos of the Rapa Nui (the
native people of Easter Island). The name was partly chosen due to Makemakes discovery close to
Easter.

ERIS

Eris is the most distant dwarf planet from the Sun and has the greatest mass. Eris is the second largest
dwarf planet (very a close second to Pluto) and at one point was considered for the position of the 10th
planet. Eris discovery promoted discussion that eventually lead to the classification of Dwarf Planets.
Facts about The Dwarf Planet Eris

Eris was once considered for the position of tenth planet.

Eris is the most massive dwarf planet in the Solar System, exceeding Plutos mass by 28%. As such, it was
a serious contender to be a tenth planet but failed to meet the criteria set out by the International
Astronomical Union in 2006.

Eris was named after the Greek goddess of discord.

Fittingly, picking a name for the object took unusually long more than 1.5 years after its discovery in
2005. Some of the rejected names were Xena, Lila, and Persephone (Plutos wife).

Eris is the second largest dwarf planet.

Eris is unquestionably the most massive of the known dwarf planets (the largest object that is not a
planet that orbits the Sun) and was once thought to be the largest due to its relative brightness. After a
stellar occultation in 2010 its diameter was calculated to be smaller than previously thought and more
recent measurement suggested Pluto was larger than thought making it the largest.

All the objects in the Asteroid Belt could fit inside Eris.

Eris is still smaller than the Earths Moon, having about two thirds of the Moons diameter and one third
of its volume.

Eris is not always the most distant dwarf planet.

At Eris furthest point from the Sun (Aphelion) it is so distant it is outside the Kuiper Belt, however at its
closet point (Perihelion) it is closer the the than Plutos most distant point.