KIDS TRIVIA

Detailed explanation-1: -As the authority on the naming and classification of celestial objects, the International Astronomical Union officially recognizes five dwarf planets in the solar system: Pluto.

Detailed explanation-2: -The five best-known dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris. Except for Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt, these small worlds are located in the Kuiper Belt. They’re considered dwarfs because they are massive, round, and orbit the Sun, but haven’t cleared their orbital path.

Detailed explanation-3: -There are currently five dwarf planets in our solar system: Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Ceres. Most dwarf planets are similar to planets, except that they haven’t cleared their space of debris. Pluto was thought to be larger than it is because its large moon made the dwarf planet look bigger than it is.

Detailed explanation-4: -Size of the Dwarf Planets The largest dwarf planet is Pluto, followed by Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and Ceres being the smallest dwarf planet. Just slightly smaller in size than Pluto, Eris is the most massive of them all.

Detailed explanation-5: -Alan Stern coined the term dwarf planet, analogous to the term dwarf star, as part of a three-fold classification of planets, and he and many of his colleagues continue to classify dwarf planets as a class of planets. The IAU decided that dwarf planets are not to be considered planets, but kept Stern’s term for them.