What is a dwarf planet?

It’s much like a regular planet—only smaller. What are dwarf planets made of? Why do we care about dwarf planets?
A dwarf planet meets two of the three requirements Dwarf planets can teach us a lot about
for planethood. To be considered a planet, an object That depends on how far away from the Sun
they formed. Ceres is a rocky, icy object that might, how our solar system formed and how it
must orbit the Sun and have enough gravity to works. Because they are smaller, dwarf
assume a nearly round shape and attract the smaller unlike other asteroids, harbor some liquid water.
Objects that are farther away like Pluto are also a planets change less than planets, essentially
objects and dust sharing its orbit. Dwarf planets orbit freezing the conditions that existed during
the Sun, and unlike smaller objects such as asteroids, mix of rock and ice, but they lack liquid water.
Those objects even farther away in the outer reaches the earliest stages of our solar system. Not
they also have enough mass to form a sphere; only that, but the discovery of planet-like
however they don’t have the gravity needed to clear of our solar system are probably almost entirely ice.
Knowing a dwarf planet’s composition is very objects farther and farther away from the Sun
their orbits of other objects and debris. means scientists are constantly redefining the
important for classifying it. That’s because a dwarf
planet needs to be spherical, and icy objects form Solar System, and our place in it.
more easily into spheres than rocky objects.
Scientists can only make educated guesses as to a
faraway object’s shape and composition, which
Many scientists think there
makes it hard to prove an object is a dwarf planet.
could be hundreds of dwarf
planets in our solar system,
but currently only five are
officially recognized— Answer the following:
Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea, 1.What is the name of the space that was
and Makemake. launched towards Pluto in 2008?
2.What were the original names of Eris and its
moon, Dysonomia?
Where are they?
3.The International Astronomical Union
Dwarf planets can be found in the asteroid officially recognizes how many dwarf planets
belt as far as 100 times Earth’s distance from the in our Solar System?
Sun. Most dwarf planets can also be classified as
something else. The closest dwarf planet, Ceres, is 4.It the earliest known and the smallest of the
also a large asteroid. Pluto is the most famous dwarf planets.
dwarf planet. As a tribute to this once-planet, all 5.Where can you find Dwarf planets? It is as
dwarf planets outside of Neptune’s orbit are far as 100 times Earth’s distance from the Sun.
referred to as plutoids.
 http:http://nix.nasa.gov
The International Astronomical Union officially http://www.iau.org/iau0603.414.0.html
recognizes five dwarf planets in our Solar System.
They are Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Eris and http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/gov/posters/en/
Pluto. Ceres is found in the outer Solar System and http://space.com/18584-dwarf-planets-solar-system-
the other four are found in the asteroid belt. The infographic.html
largest is Pluto and the smallest is Ceres.
Pluto,Haumea,Eris and Makemake are also
known as plutoids,unlike the asteroidal dwarf
planetoid Ceres.A plutoid is a dwarf planet with an
orbit outside that of Neptune.
The order of the dwarf planets from closest to
the Sun outwards is Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Learn more about what makes a planet a planet
Makemake and then Eres, which is the furthest at
from the Sun.
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/planet-what-is
Ceres is the earliest known and the smallest of
the dwarf planets. It was discovered in 1801 by http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/ice-dwarf
Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi. It is only 590
miles in diameter and has a mass of just 0.015
percent of the Earth. It is classified as both a dwarf
planet and an asteroid. Ceres is the largest resident
of the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. Monica Grace L. Manalo
It is also the first dwarf planet to be visited by a
spacecraft. Danilo L.Tagao Jr.
 Know what is Dwarf planets;
There have only been two visits by space BSEd IV-A Physical Science
probes to dwarf planets. In 2015 NASA's Dawn and  Learn Interesting Facts about Dwarf
New Horizons missions reached Ceres and Pluto. planets;
 Explain why should we care dwarf planets.

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