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Dwarf Planets
Dwarf planets are celestial bodies orbiting around the Sun that are not counted as planets because of their small size. Find questions about the different Dwarf Planets here.
352 Questions
Are dawrf planets the smallest planets?
"Dwarf planet" is a recent term, invented to express the difference between more significant worlds and little, but round, objects like Ceres and Pluto. Other names were considered and some may still be used. The objects in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, usually called "asteroids" (little stars) can more properly be called "planetoids" (little planets). These, except Ceres, are all smaller than Pluto and the other dwarf planets. Smaller still are the bodies in the Oort Cloud which can become comets. These are known as "planetisimals" (very small planets).
Where was Pluto disqualified in space?
Pluto was not disqualified in space. It was reclassed into a more specific category: dwarf planet.
What are the risks of traveling to Pluto?
as of 2017 we do not have the technology to travel to Pluto, so the risks would only be theoretical. Some risks might be:
- radiation exposure
- accidents and/or collisions en route
- systems failures
- finding people willing to sit in a tiny ship for nearly a decade of the their lives, and again on the way back
Why are meteoroids not considered dwarf planets?
Too small.
(To be even a dwarf planet you must have sufficient mass to give yourself a spherical shape.)
Have humans or human-made objects traveled to by or on Pluto?
Not yet. The New Horizons space probe, launched in 2006, will fly by Pluto in June 2015. Humans themselves have only been as far as the moon.
What is difference between Classical planet and a dwarf planet?
Pluto is a Dwarf Planet because it is too small to be a Classical Planet.
Dwarf Planets are much smaller than Classical Planets.
If you look at a diagram of the solar system with Pluto in it, you will see that it is much smaller compared to the other Classical Planets.
What is the importance of dwarf planets?
nothing, if the dwarf planet Pluto magically disappears will not have to worry about anything.
What caused the pockmarks on the moon?
When astroids hit the moon it causes pockmarks... also when the dinosaurs moved to the moon 222,000 years ago they made big poops.
What is the difference from an asteroid to a dwarf planet?
A dwarf planet is a body that orbits the sun - is often beyond the orbit of Jupiter and is classified below a planet. An asteroid is a body that orbits the sun within the asteroid belt.
The dwarf planet Pluto has never gone missing. It's still there.
How is the dwarf planet ceres related to the main asteroid belt?
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt.
Can dwarf planets have moons why?
Yes. Of the five recognized dwarf planets only one, Ceres lacks a moon. Dwarf planets are massive objects, far more massive that ordinary asteroids and comets, so they have strong enough gravity to retain moons in stable orbits.
How small can a planet be before it is classified as a dwarf?
The definition of "planet" doesn't specifically list a minimum size. The term is instead defined dynamically: in order to be considered a planet, the body must have "cleared the neighborhood of its orbit". Roughly speaking, this means anything approximately the same distance from the Sun as the potential planet must be either much, much smaller or a satellite (or both) of the planet.
For example: There are several thousand known asteroids that come near or cross Earth's orbit. However, they have a much lower mass than the Earth; even if you lumped them all together into a single body, they'd still have a much lower mass than the Earth. So Earth has "cleared its neighborhood" and is a planet.
Ceres is the largest known asteroid; large enough for its own mass to have pulled it into an approximately spherical shape (this is another criterion that planets have to meet). It also has a lot of asteroids that are near or cross its orbit, and it's the largest of them ... but it's not nearly as dominant as Earth is; Ceres only represents a bit over a third of the total mass of the asteroid belt (the next largest asteroid is about a third of Ceres' mass). Ceres therefore has not cleared its neighborhood and is not a planet (it's a dwarf planet, because it does have that approximately spherical shape, which is technically called "hydrostatic equilibrium").
How about Pluto? It turns out that Pluto's orbit crosses that of Neptune (not literally; there's no possibility they could collide). So it's nowhere near even being the largest thing in its neighborhood, and therefore not a planet (despite being considerably larger than Ceres).
The smallest object in the Solar System that's definitely a planet is Mercury, which has a radius of almost 2500 km. The largest (known) object in the solar system that's definitely not a planet (and also not a moon) is either Eris or Pluto; we're not quite sure which because they're both very close to 1160 km radius. So somewhere between the two might be a rough answer. (It turns out that it's easier to clear your orbit if your orbit is closer to the Sun; a Mercury-sized body out beyond Neptune probably wouldn't make the cut.)
Yes. While not considered planets, dwarf planets are still massive enough to be rounded by their gravity.
Why are the planets spread out like they are?
because where they are today is where they formed. by where they are i mean how far away they are from the sun. but the universe is always changing.
How often does Pluto revolve around the earth?
Pluto - takes 248 YEARS to orbit the sun once ! 248 years - is approximately 2.17 million hours.
Why did the 7 dwarfs mine for diamonds?
The oldest versions of that tale don't say what they mined for, only that they were miners.
Disney probably had them mine for "diamonds" because hey, why not, the notion of there being gems in a mine is simpler to draw than them extracting ores (rock of a slightly different color from the surrounding rock) and then smelting it into metals. They could have mined gold, I suppose; gold is found uncombined.
How was the dwarf planet Mercury discovered?
First, Mercury is NOT a "dwarf planet." It's a small one, compared to Earth, but it meets full planetary criteria. Pluto and Ceres are dwarf planets.
Second, Mercury has been known since Antiquity. It's plainly visible at dawn or dusk if one knows where to look.
Where is the dwarf planet churon lacated in the solar system?
There is no dwarf planet named Churon. Charon is a real object, though. it is not a dwarf planet, however: it is the largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto, which has an elliptical orbit that lies mostly beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Is hydrogen more abundant on terrestrial planets than on Jovian planets?
No, there is more hydrogen on the Jovian planets then the terrestrial ones.
