PROFESSOR SMARTT’S

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Photo: NASA/Wikimedia commons

 DWARF PLANETS
Remember Pluto? It used to be counted as the 9th planet from the Sun until the discovery of Eris, a body almost the
same size as it, prompted scientists to decide whether they would have to list it as a new planet, or create a
subcategory of planets called Dwarf Planets.
All dwarf planets (apart from Ceres) reside in the Kuiper Belt, a region of ice and rock at the edge of the Solar
System.

There may be as many as 200 more dwarf planets beyond the orbit of Neptune,
waiting to be discovered.
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A DWARF PLANET?
• A dwarf planet is a celestial body too small to be considered a planet, but
too large to be an asteroid.

• Another difference between planets and dwarf planets – a planet must

have cleared its orbit of other debris. Dwarf planets do not have enough
gravitational force to either join the intruding objects to themselves, or kick
them out of the way.

• On the other hand dwarf planets must be large enough to have formed in a
(roughly) round shape – they can’t be lumpy potatoes like most asteroids!

• They are all (apart from Ceres) very far from the Sun - let’s take a look at
their orbits.
ORBITS OF THE DWARF PLANETS
Eris

Makemake
Haumea Neptune’s Orbit

Pluto

Sun

Sun

The Kuiper Belt: made up of more

than 100,000 asteroids each at
least 100km across.
 ACTIVITY – FIND A DWARF PLANET.
• Try and find a dwarf planet in some real images from a telescope in Hawaii.
• This telescope surveys the sky every night and searches for moving objects (planets and
asteroids) and anything that flashes or changes in brightness.
Here’s an image from
telescopes of the European
Southern Observatory in Chile
of a patch of sky.

It is covered in stars – how

would you go about finding a
planet in all this confusion?

Let’s find out.

Image credit : ESO, Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

 Find Pluto!
Here are two images taken with the ATLAS telescope on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Astronomers
often show the sky in “negative”, so all the black dots (apart from one) are stars. The dwarf planet
Pluto is in both images. All the stars are stationary, and Pluto is the only object that has moved. Can
you find it? This is how Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, he just spotted the object that moved.

2nd October 2018 14th October 2018

 CERES
• The closest dwarf planet to Earth,
Ceres’ orbit is between Mars and
Jupiter, so it is the only dwarf
planet not in the Kuiper Belt.
• Ceres is named after the Roman
goddess of grain crops and
harvests. The word cereal comes
from the same name.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
PLUTO
• The most famous dwarf planet.
Pluto was discovered in 1930
by Clyde Tombaugh and named
by Venetia Burney, an 11 year
old girl from Oxford. She
received £5 as a reward.
• Pluto was demoted from planet
to dwarf planet status in 2006,
following the discovery of Eris.
PHOTO: NASA
H AU M E A
• Haumea is a strange, oval shaped dwarf planet on
the outskirts of the Solar System. Its odd shape is
thought to be the result of a violent collision with
other trans-Neptunian objects (objects beyond the
orbit of Neptune), coupled with its extremely fast
rotation. A day lasts only four hours.
• Haumea even has a ring, like Saturn and Uranus.

Image: Stephanie Hoover

Credit: IAA-CSIC/UHU
 MAKEMAKE
• Very little is known about the mysterious dwarf
planet Makemake.
• It is two-thirds the size of Pluto, and also
contributed to its demotion and the creation of
a new classification of dwarf planets.
• Makemake was named after the chief god of
the Rapa Nui tribe on Easter Island.
• Makemake, along with Eris and Pluto, all reside
in the Kuiper Belt.
Image: NASA
ERIS
• Eris is the furthest known dwarf
planet in the Solar System.
• When it was discovered, it was
thought to be bigger than Pluto -
one of the main reasons for Pluto’s
demotion and the creation of the
dwarf planet class.
• We now know it is almost exactly
the same size as Pluto.
• It takes 25 hours to rotate on its
axis, making its day similar to ours,
but it takes 561 Earth years to orbit
the Sun.
NASA
 THREE MORE FACTS ABOUT THE DWARF PLANETS
• They have moons, such as Pluto’s Charon and Eris’s Dysnomia.
• There may be up to 200 dwarf planets on the edge of the Solar System.
• Pluto has an average surface temperature of around -228℃. When the New Horizons
spacecraft passed Pluto in 2015, scientists spotted ice features similar to Earth’s
penitentes, except that while the penitentes on Earth reach only 5 metres in height,
Pluto’s may reach up to 500 metres.

Earth’s penitentes.
Pluto’s may be 100
times taller.
 ACTIVITY

Test your knowledge with the question sheet on

the Dwarf Planets.
PLANETARY MNEMONICS, INCLUDING DWARF PLANETS
As the dwarf planets were discovered, longer planetary mnemonics were created to
help remember their order.
As there may be up to 200 dwarf planets on the outskirts of the Kuiper Belt, it will
become harder and harder to think up new mnemonics!

Can you remember the order of all the planets, including dwarf planets?
• My Very Educated Mother Cannot Just Serve Us Nine Pizzas - Hundreds Must Eat!
• My Very Educated Mother Can Just Scream Until Nine Planets Haunt My
Encyclopedia.
 ACTIVITY

Fill in the question sheet.

 6. How long is a day on Eris?
DWARF PLANETS a. 24 hours
b. 25 hours
1. Which dwarf planet is the
c. 48 hours
closest to Earth, and resides
between Mars and Jupiter?
7. What is the name of the region
a. Eris
at the edge of the solar system
b. Haumea where most dwarf planets
c. Ceres reside.?
a. The Hyper Belt
2. Put these in order of their size,
b. The Viper Belt
from the biggest to the smallest.
c. The Kuiper Belt
a. Eris
b. Our Moon
8. What dwarf planet was named
c. Ceres after the chief god of the Rapa
d. Pluto Nui tribe on Easter Island?
(Hint: it is the only dwarf planet
3. Though there may be up to 200 we haven’t mentioned on this
dwarf planets in our Solar sheet so far).
System, how many have been
officially classified as dwarf _____________________________
planets so far?

_____________________________

4. What year was Pluto stripped of

its planet status and officially Score: /8
made a “dwarf planet”?
a. 1930
b. 2006
c. 2016

5. Draw the rough shape of the

dwarf planet Haumea.
 BONUS ACTIVITY
As a class, come up with some
questions about the Solar
System and tweet them to
Professor Smartt.

@smarttscience
 Find Pluto!
Here are two images taken with the ATLAS telescope on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Astronomers
often show the sky in “negative”, so all the black dots (apart from one) are stars. The dwarf planet
Pluto is in both images. All the stars are stationary, and Pluto is the only object that has moved. Can
you find it? This is how Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, he just spotted the object that moved.

2nd October 2018 14th October 2018

 6. How long is a day on Eris?
DWARF PLANETS a. 24 hours
b. 25 hours
1. Which dwarf planet is the
c. 48 hours
closest to Earth, and resides
between Mars and Jupiter?
7. What is the name of the region
a. Eris
at the edge of the Solar System
b. Haumea where most dwarf planets
c. Ceres reside?
a. The Hyper Belt
2. Put these in order of their size,
b. The Viper Belt
from the biggest to the smallest.
c. The Kuiper Belt
a. Eris. 2
b. Our Moon 1 (biggest)
8. What dwarf planet was named
c. Ceres. 4 (smallest) after the chief god of the Rapa
d. Pluto. 3 Nui tribe on Easter Island?
Note that Eris is just a little bigger than Pluto
(Hint: it is the only dwarf planet
3. Though there may be up to 200 we haven’t mentioned on this
dwarf planets in our Solar
sheet so far).
System, how many have been
officially classified as dwarf
________Makemake________
planets so far?

____________5______________

4. What year was Pluto stripped of

its planet status and officially
made a “dwarf planet”?
Score: /8
a. 1930
b. 2006
c. 2016

5. Draw the rough shape of the

dwarf planet Haumea.