Dwarf Planets

Dwarf planets

There are five official dwarf planets in our solar system with another four objects that almost certainly are. There are 394 objects in the solar system that are possible dwarf planets including the five currently recognized.

The known dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris. These bodies are each over appropriately 950 km in diameter.

All the dwarf planets are found in the Kuiper Belt with the exception of Ceres which is found in the asteroid belt.

No dwarf planets have been visited by space probes, though in 2015 NASA’s Dawn and New Horizons missions will reach Ceres and Pluto respectively.

Sizes Of The Dwarf Planets

The Dwarf Planets

Name  Distance from Sun          Diameter at                                               Equator
Ceres  413,700,000 km (2.77 AU) 950 km
Pluto  5,874,000,000 km (39.26 AU) 2,306 km
Haumea  6,452,000,000 km (43.13 AU) 1,739 km
Makemake 6,850,000,000 km (45.79 AU) 1,502 km
Eris  10,120,000,000 km (68.01 AU) 2,326 km

To see more facts about each dwarf planets visit other blog pages.