http://solarsystem.nasa.

gov/planets The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped region of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune -- billions of kilometers from our sun. Pluto and Eris are the best known of these icy worlds. There may be hundreds more of these ice dwarfs out there. The Kuiper Belt and even more distant Oort Cloud are believed to be the home of comets that orbit our sun.

How the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud Got Their Names Both distant regions are named for the astronomers who predicted their existence -- Gerard Kuiper and Jan Oort. Objects discovered in the Kuiper Belt get their names from diverse mythologies. Eris is named for the Greek goddess of discord and strife. Haumea is named for a Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth. Comets from both regions are generally named for the person who discovered them. 2008: The Kuiper Belt object provisionally known as 2005FY9 ("Easterbunny") is recognized in July as a dwarf planet and named Makemake (pronounced MAHkeh-MAHkeh) after the Polynesian (Rapa Nui) creation god. In September, 2003EL61 ("Santa") was designated a dwarf planet and given the name Haumea after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth.

Outer solar system and Kuiper Belt. Credits: NASA

Dwarf Planets: Overview

What is a planet? We've been asking that question at least since Greek astronomers came up with the word to describe the bright points of light that seemed to wander among fixed stars. Our solar system's planet count has soared as high as 15 before it was decided that some discoveries were different and should be called asteroids. Many disagreed in 1930 when Pluto was added as our solar system's ninth planet. The debate flared again in 2005 when Eris -- about the same size as Pluto -- was found deep in a zone beyond Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. Was it the 10th planet? Or are Eris and Pluto examples of an intriguing, new kind of world? The International Astronomical Union decided in 2006 that a new system of classification was needed to describe these new worlds, which are more developed than asteroids, but different than the known planets. Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres became the first dwarf planets. Unlike planets, dwarf planets lack the gravitational muscle to sweep up or scatter objects near their orbits. They end up orbiting the sun in zones of similar objects such as the asteroid and Kuiper belts.

Our solar system's planet count now stands at eight. But the lively debate continues as we continue to explore and make new discoveries.
The newly defined class of "dwarf planets" includes Ceres in the Main Asteroid Belt (between the orbits of Mars

and Jupiter) and Pluto and Eris (2003 UB 313) in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt (beyond the orbit of Neptune).

On September 17, 2008, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced that the trans-Neptunian object 2003 El61 had been designated a "dwarf planet and accepted the Polynesian names submitted by its discoverers for the primary body (Haumea) and its two moons, Hi'aka and Namaka, (press release). On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted at the end of its 26th General Assembly to establish definitions for three classes of substellar objects in the Solar System: planets, dwarf planets, and smaller Solar System bodies. These classes were defined as follows:

Planet - This 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 nearly round shape (due to a hydrostatic equilibrium); and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. As now defined, the Solar System has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Dwarf Planet - This is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun; and (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape (due to a hydrostatic equilibrium); but (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit; and (d) is not a satellite of another planet. As defined, the Solar System has probably has at least one dwarf planet in the Main Asteroid Belt (Ceres), Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt (Pluto and Eris); and Oort Cloud (possibly Sedna). In addition, the "dwarf planet" Pluto is recognized as a prototype of a new class of trans-Neptunian objects. Smaller Solar System Bodies - This category collectively refers to all other celestial bodies orbiting our Sun, Sol (including asteroids, comets, and satellites). Some astronomers believe that these controversial definitions will be revisited before the next IAU assembly in 2009. (More discussion is available from IAU 2006, Astronomy Picture of the Day; and from "Planetesimals to Brown Dwarfs: What is a Planet?," Basri and Brown, 2006.) For example, on November 6, 2000, astronomers associated with exoplanets.org (Geoffrey W. Marcy and R. Paul Butler) began using a generalized definition of "planet" that they also apply to objects found outside the Solar System.

Like the eight larger planets, the class of Solar System objects newly defined as "dwarf planets" are massive enough to be roughly round in shape. They also orbit the Sun, Sol, rather than other planets like Earth's Moon or Pluto's satellite Charon. However, they are still small enough that they have not cleared their orbital region around Sol of objects of roughly similar size. (A list of over 40 current dwarf planetary candidates -- that

does not include unannounced objects recently discovered -- and a comparison of their average orbital distances from the Sun and estimated diameters with the eight larger planets is available from Astronomer Michael Brown's web page.

List of Dwarf Planets

http://nineplanets.org/dwarf.html In 2006, the IAU decided to create a new classification category for solar system objects called "dwarf planets" that is distinct from "planets". Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. At present there are only four other members of this category, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea but it is likely that there will be many more in the future as the Kuiper Belt is more fully explored.

According to the International Astronomical Union, which sets definitions for planetary science, a dwarf planet is a celestial body that:

Orbits the sun. Has enough mass to assume a nearly round shape. Has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Is not a moon.

The main distinction between a dwarf planet and a planet is that planets have cleared the path around the sun while dwarf planets tend to orbit in zones of similar objects that can cross their path around the sun, such as the asteroid and Kuiper belts. Dwarf planets also are generally smaller than the planet Mercury. The first five recognized dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. Scientists there may be dozens or even more than 100 dwarf planets awaiting discovery. The IAU recognized Pluto's special place in our solar system by designating dwarf planets that orbit the sun beyond Neptune as plutoids. Eris, which orbits far beyond Neptune, is a plutoid while Ceres, which orbits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is a dwarf planet.

An artist's concept showing the size of the best known dwarf planets compared to Earth and its moon (top). Eris is left center; Ceres is the small body to its right and Pluto and its moon Charon are at the bottom.

The Dwarf Planet http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/dwarfplanets/ On August 24th 2006 the word "planet" was given its first-ever scientific definition by a vote of the International Astronomical Union. With the raising of a few yellow cards in Prague, Pluto was demoted from fullfledged planet to "dwarf planet." Eris, originally called 2003 UB313, sometimes called Xena, sometimes called the "10th planet," which in many ways precipitated this final debate, becomes the largest known dwarf planet. Unless astronomers revisit this issue at some point in the future, it is unlikely that there will ever be more than eight planets. While some still continue to mourn the loss of Pluto from the pantheon of planets, it is much more interesting to consider this new class of dwarf planets, instead. What is a dwarf planet? When the final vote on the definition of "planet" was made, and the eight dominant bodies in the solar system were declared (quite rationally) a class separate from the others, a new class of objects was defined. The "dwarf planets" are all of those objects which are not one of the eight dominant bodies (Mercury through Neptune) yet still, at least in one way, resemble a planet. The best definition heard so far is that a dwarf planet is something that looks like a planet, but is not a planet. The dwarf planets are bodies in the solar system which are large enough to become round due to their own gravitational attraction. Why do astronomers care about round? If you place a boulder in space it will just stay whatever irregular shape it is. If you add more boulders to it you can still have an irregular pile. But if you add enough boulders to the pile they will eventually pull themselves into a round shape. This transition from irregularly shaped to round objects is important in the solar system, and, in some ways, marks the transition from an object without and with interesting geological and planetary processes occuring (there are many many other transitions that are equally important, however, a fact that tends to be ignored in these discussions). How many dwarf planets are there? There are two ways to look at this question. First is to ask: acording to the official list kept by the IAU, how many dwarf planets are there? The current answer (as of 1 April 2007) is only three. The asteroid Ceres is the only asteroid known to be round. Pluto is also considered a dwarf planet. And Eris, a little larger than Pluto, is a dwarf planet also. Three is all the IAU will currently deal with. Reality, however, does not pay much attention to official lists kept by the

IAU or by anyone else. A more interesting question to ask is: how many round objects are there in the solar system that are not planets? These are, by the definition, dwarf planets, whether or not they ever make it to any offiicially sanctioned list. If the category of dwarf planet is important, then it is the reality that is important, not the official list. So how many dwarf planets are there? Ceres is still the only asteroid that is known to be round. After that it gets complicated. All of the rest of the new dwarf planets are in the distant region of the Kuiper belt, where we can't actually see them well enough to know for sure if they are round or not. While we can't see most of the objects in the Kuiper belt well enough to determine whether they are round or not, we can estimate how big an object has to be before it becomes round and therefore how many objects in the Kuiper belt are likely round. In the asteroid belt Ceres, with a diameter of 900 km, is the only object large enough to be round, so somewhere around 900 km is a good cutoff for rocky bodies like asteroids. Kuiper belt objects have a lot of ice in their interiors, though. Ice is not as hard as rock, so it less easily withstands the force of gravity, and it takes less force to make an ice ball round. The best estimate for how big an icy body needs to be to become round comes from looking at icy satellites of the giant planets. The smallest body that is generally round is Saturn's satellite Mimas, which has a diameter of about 400 km. Several satellites which have diameters around 200 km are not round. So somewhere between 200 and 400 km an icy body becomes round. Objects with more ice will become round at smaller sizes while those with less rock might be bigger. We will take 400 km as a reasonable lower limit and assume that anything larger than 400 km in the Kuiper belt is round, and thus a dwarf planet. How many objects larger than 400 km are there in the Kuiper belt? We can't answer this question precisely, because we don't know the sizes of more than a handful of Kuiper belt objects (for an explanation why, see the discussion on the size of Eris), but, again, we can make a reasonable guess. If we assume that the typical small Kuiper belt object reflects 10% of the sunlight that hits its surface we know how bright a 400 km object would be in the Kuiper belt. As of late August 2006, 44 objects this size or larger in the Kuiper belt (including, of course, Eris and Pluto), and one (Sedna) in the region beyond the Kuiper belt. In addition our large ongoing Palomar survey has detected approximately 30 more objects of this size which are currently undergoing detailed study.

We have not yet completed our survey of the Kuiper belt. Our best estimate is that a complete survey of the Kuiper belt would double this number. For now, the number of known objects in the solar system which are likely to be round is 53, with the number jumping to 80 when the objects from our survey are announced, and to ~200 when the Kuiper belt is fully surveyed. Beyond the Kuiper belt there may be even more dwarf planets than in the Kuiper belt. Our best guess is that the region where Sedna resides could contain another ~2000 dwarf planets. The new dwarf planets in the solar system are very different from the previous 8 planets. Most are so small that they are smaller across than the distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco. They are so small that about 30,000 of them could fit inside the earth.

In order from closest to furthest, the dwarf planets are shown below (with the planets, shown for comparison, in blue). A few of them have been studied well enough that we know interesting details. Click the links to learn more.......

name

average distance from sun (semimajor axis, AU) 0.39 0.72 1.0 1.5

estimated size (km)

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

4880 12,100 12,700 6780

Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune 2004TY364 2002KX14 2002XV93 2003VS2 1999TC36 2001QF298 Orcus 2003AZ84 Pluto Ixion

2.8 5.2 9.6 19.2 30.0 38.72 39.01 39.22 39.27 39.27 39.30 39.34 39.45 39.53 39.65 39.76

950 139,800 116,500 50,700 49,200 540 560 430 610 440 490 1100 710 2300 980 480

2005RN43 1995SM55 2002MS4 2004SB60 2004GV9 2002UX25

41.53 41.64 41.90 41.97 42.23 42.53

740 470 740 560 680 810

Varuna 2002TX300 1996TO66 2003OP32 2003EL61 Quaoar 2003QW90 1999CD158 1997CS29 2000CN105 1998WH24 2005FY9 2004PR107 2003MW12 2002CY248 2002KW14 2002AW197 2002WC19 2003QX113 2003FY128 2001UR163 2002TC302

42.90 43.11 43.19 43.24 43.31 43.58 43.65 43.69 43.87 44.65 45.56 45.66 45.75 45.94 46.18 47.08 47.30 47.67 49.56 49.77 51.40 55.02

780 800 540 650 2000 1290 560 410 410 430 450 1600 520 740 410 510 940 410 450 430 620 710

1999DE9 2004XR190 2000YW134 Eris 2005RM43 Sedna

55.72 57.36 57.77 67.69 89.73 486.0

490 540 430 2400 560 1800

Who has discovered dwarf planets? Many people have found dwarf planets, starting with the discovery of Ceres by Piazzo in 1801, continuing with Pluto by Tombaugh in 1930, and the moving to the discovery of the many many objects in the Kuiper belt begining in 1992. For the likely dwarf planets listed above, here is the list of discoverers (some planets were discovered by teams which change a bit, in general the team name or the team leader is listed. Sometimes no discoverer is recorded):

Brown et al.: 15 dwarf planets Deep Ecliptic Survey: 8 dwarf planets Near Earth Asteroid Tracking Survey: 4 dwarf planets Spacewatch: 4 dwarf planets Jewitt et al.: 3 dwarf planets Rupenstein, Ferrin, Danzl, Roe, Luu, Piazzo, Tombaugh: 1 dwarf planet each