SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -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-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -Currently, there are six dwarf planets officially designated by the IAU: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and 2015 RR245, discovered in July.

Detailed explanation-4: -Moons of Dwarf Planets Eris, another dwarf planet even more distant than Pluto, has a small moon of its own, named Dysnomia. Haumea, another dwarf planet, has two satellites, Hi’iaka and Namaka. Ceres, the closest dwarf planet to the Sun, has no moons.

Detailed explanation-5: -Haumea. Haumea was discovered in 2003 and became our fifth dwarf planet in 2008. Its shape and composition set it apart from other objects in the Kuiper belt, and it is one of the fastest rotating large objects in the solar system.