Dwarf Planets In The Solar System

Based on this classification, Pluto was assigned as a dwarf planet and no longer regarded as a planet. While dwarf planets do orbit around the sun, they don't have sufficient force to overcome forces and form a round shape. Also, they are unable to clear the path of their orbit of objects that could be satellites of other planets. Today, there's five dwarf planets that they know of. They are Eris, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Ceres. Out of all the known dwarf planets, the largest is Eris, while the smallest is Ceres.

While they were in school, they studied that our Solar Process is made up of nine planets, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto. However, they may must unlearn this knowledge. In the year 2006, the International Astronomical Union started using another process of classifying stellar objects. This classification believed that three types of stellar objects were present in the Solar Process, namely planets, dwarf planets and bodies of Solar Process.


The name of the dwarf planet was taken from Greek mythology. Eris was the goddess of warfare and conflict. They was responsible for bringing hatred, anger and jealousy amongst men which caused them to fight another. The name was carefully chosen as the discovery of this dwarf planet was plagued with controversies. The astronomy community was happy with the way Eris was classified. Hence, it got an appropriate name.


Eris was first spotted in the year 2003, but it was confirmed only in the year 2005, in January by an astronomer from Michigan Institute of Know-how named Michael Brown. It is the most distant stellar object to be discovered orbiting the Sun.


 being discovered, Eris was first named 2003 UB313. Then it earned the nickname Xena, and at last in September 2006, the dwarf planet was officially called Eris by the International Astronomical Union.


Scientists think that Eris' outer layer is made up of frozen methane that has managed to seep its way in to the insides. As not much radiation from the Sun reaches the dwarf planet, the surface of Eris is yellowish in color. Till now, scientists have been able to discover moon revolving around Eris and they have named the moon Dysnomia, who in Greek mythology was Eris' daughter. Dysnomia takes around two weeks to orbit around Eris.


Eris has a slightly bigger diameter compared to Pluto at two,400 kilometers. It around 97 AU from the Sun and takes around 577 years to complete an orbit around the Sun. The temperature on Eris varies from -217 degrees Celsius to -243 degrees Celsius.


In order to see Eris, you need an powerful telescope. You won't be able to see this planet with a pair of binoculars or bare eyes.