Major Dwarf Planets There are five recognised Dwarf planets in the solar system at the time of writing. The number can increase inthe futurewhen one is discovered or the rules have changed. There are some candidates such asIxionandQuaoar, but they are awaiting confirmation. ...
Eris is a recent discovery, one made by the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County in October2003. It was the planet that sparked such intense debate over the proper definition of a planet, which resulted in the IAU differentiating between dwarf planets and regular planets. Its radius is 722...
The mission will conduct major surveys in the near-infrared to answer fundamental questions about the nature of dark energy, the distribution of dark matter, the occurrence of planets around other stars, and even to enable the direct imaging of planetary systems. Globular clusters are usually ...
Related Articles: Ceres , planet , Pluto , dwarf planet , Dawn , Haumea , Makemake Transcript What is a dwarf planet? In 60 seconds, you'll know. This is "Space Shorts." Dwarf planets are a lot like regular planets. They both have enough mass and gravity to be nearly round -- ...
Moon phases reveal the passage of time in the night sky. Some nights when we look up at the moon, it is full and bright; sometimes it is just a sliver of silvery light. These changes in appearance are the phases of the moon. As the moon orbits Earth, it cycles through eight distinct...
There are eight planets in the solar system. Adwarf planetis a celestial body that: is in orbit around a star has enough mass for its owngravityto give it a round shape hasnotcleared away other objects that lie in or near its orbit ...
In our neck of the woods, things are relatively close together and fast moving. If Earth is the planet that never sleeps then the Oort cloud is where you go to retire away from it all, far from the bright lights and bustling planets of the inner system. It exists at the outer fringes...
When astronomers search for life outside of our solar system, they look right past the gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter, past the torrid, rocky planets like Mercury and Venus, and past the dwarf planets like Pluto. They stop when they find an exoplanet like Gliese 581d. Gliese 581d is...
Two planets close and up close. This is the view through a telescope during the extremely close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on August 27. Credit: Stellarium Saturn, Mars and Antares are shown on Sunday night August 21 two nights before their lineup. Mars is still the brightest of the...
What is the closest neighboring galaxy to ours? The Milky Way andthe Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest spiral neighbor, are headed toward each other. In about five billion years, they may collide and merge. Eventually, our remote descendants could be living in a large elliptical galaxy. ...