A few Dwarf Planets from
our Solar System
Pluto
Year it was discovered: 1930
Moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra.
Diameter: 2,377 km
Orbital Period: 248 Years
Pluto one of the 9th furthest (commonly know) main orbiting object in our solar
system got his name from the Greek god of the underworld, Pluto. In 2006
Pluto was reclassified from being a planet to a dwarf planet. It’s also know that he
is the largest dwarf planet in The Solar System. In 2015 the spacecraft New
Horizons orbited Pluto’s orbit and took a series of shots before redirecting its
trajectory to even further objects.
Sedna
Year it was discovered: 1801
Moons: None*
Diameter: 946 km
Orbital Period: 4.6 Years
Sedna is the closest dwarf planet to the sun. The origin of its name came from the
Inuit goddess of the sea, Sedna. Furthermore, Sedna is also the only Dwarf
planet with no moons in the whole Solar System. For being one of the smallests
dwarf planets a day in Sedna takes only 10 hours.
Makemake
Year it was discovered: 2005
Moons: MK2
Diameter: 1434 km
Orbital Period: 309.9 Years
Makemake is the second closest dwarf planet to the sun. Makemake’s name
come from the Rapa Nui’s (Aboriginal Polynesian inhabitants of Easter
Island) mythology goddess the creator of humanity and god of fertility. The
main reason for the given name is due to its discovery date being close to Easter.
The planet had an atmosphere made up of methane on nitrogen. The planet was
also expected to develop a new atmosphere but it was soon discovered that it
won’t develop due to the lack of gas.
Eris
Year it was discovered: 2005
Moons: Dysnomia
Diameter: 2326 km
Orbital Period: 560.9 years
Eris is the most distant dwarf planet from the sun also known as trans-Neptunian
object among with Sedna, Pluto and many more. Eris got his name from the
Greek goddess of discord. Due to his size, in 2006, it almost came to be the
10th planet in our Solar System, but it failed the criteria set out by the IAU (
International Astronomical Union. The planet is so far from the sun that sometimes
his atmosphere freezes due to lack of sunlight.