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The number of dwarf planets in the Solar System is unknown. Estimates have run as high as 200 in the Kuiper belt and over 10,000 in the region beyond. However, consideration of the surprisingly low densities of many large trans-Neptunian objects, as well as spectroscopic analysis of their surfaces, suggests that the number of dwarf planets may be much lower, perhaps only nine among bodies ...
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which for decades was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept ...
[a] Originally considered a planet, Pluto's status as part of the Kuiper belt caused it to be reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. It is compositionally similar to many other objects of the Kuiper belt, and its orbital period is characteristic of a class of KBOs, known as " plutinos ," that share the same 2:3 resonance with Neptune.
Eris ( minor-planet designation: 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. [22] It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high- eccentricity orbit. Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory –based team led by Mike Brown and verified later that year.
There are also 24,836 named minor planets mostly after people, places and figures from mythology and fiction, [4] which account for only 3.4% of all numbered catalog entries. (4596) 1981 QB and 698609 Angli are currently the lowest-numbered unnamed and highest-numbered named minor planets, respectively. [1] [4]
Of the Solar System's eight planets and its nine most likely dwarf planets, six planets and seven dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 300 natural satellites, or moons. At least 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded; of these, all are covered by a crust of ice except for Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Io. [1]
Makemake. Makemake [e] ( minor-planet designation: 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet and the second-largest of what is known as the classical population of Kuiper belt objects, [b] with a diameter approximately that of Saturn's moon Iapetus, or 60% that of Pluto. [24] [25] It has one known satellite. [26]
This list includes all numbered trans-Neptunian objects with a semi-major axis greater than 30.1 astronomical units (AU), Neptune's average orbital distance from the Sun. The data is sourced from MPC's "List of Trans Neptunian Objects" and "List Of Centaurs and Scattered-Disk Objects", completed with remarks and information from Johnston's Archive (diameter, class, binary, albedo, spectral ...