Dwarf PlanetsBy Lindsey

What is a dwarf planet?

It is a celestial body orbiting the Sun

It has it’s own gravity It has not cleared it’s surrounding area in space of planetesimals It must apply to all of the rules above

Some Dwarf Planets

Ceres Pluto

Haumea Makemake Eris

Ceres

Ceres is the only

dwarf planet in th

e

asteroid belt. It

has no moons. It i

s

named after the Ro

man goddess of

agriculture, Ceres

.

It takes Ceres 168

0.5 days to comple

te

its orbit.

Ceres is the small

est dwarf planet.

It

is smaller than th

e moon.

Ceres used to be c

lassed as an

asteroid.

Pluto Pluto has three moons, Hydra, Charon, and and Nix.

Pluto used to be a planet. Pluto’s orbital period is 90,613.305 days. Pluto was named by Venetia Burney, an eleven year old schoolgirl.

Pluto is named after the god of the underworld.

Haumea

Haumea has

two moons

,

Namaka and

Hi’iaka.

Haumea was

discovere

d in

2005.

Haumea is

actually a

n

oval shape

.

Makemake

Makemake was discovered near

Easter, in 2005.

Hence, it was named Makemake

, a god of the

native peoples of Easter Isl

and, as a memory

of it’s time of discovery.

Makemake has no moons.

Makemake’s orbital period is

113,183 days.

This picture of Makemake (ab

ove, right) is

actually an artist’s concept

ion, not an actual

photo.

Eris

Eris is the biggest dwarf

planet. Eris has one moon, Dysnomia.

Eris has more mass than

Pluto. The picture (right) is of

Eris and it’s moon.

I hope you were paying attention… POP QUIZ!!!!

Question 1: Can you name all 5 of the dwarf planets?

Question 2: How long does it take for Ceres to orbit once around the Sun?

Question 3: When was Makemake discovered?

Question 4: Which dwarf planet is the biggest, and which is the smallest?

Question 5: Who named Pluto?

Pop Quiz Answers

Question 1: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris.

Question 2: 1680.5 days

Question 3: 2005

Question 4: Eris and Ceres

Question 5: Venetia Burney

5 questions- 100% 4 questions-80% 3 questions-60% 2 questions-40% 1 question-20% 0 questions-FAIL!!!!! 0%

Sources

Ceres-http://www.lunarplanner.com/asteroids-main/index.html

Eris-http://caveofknowledge.com/history-2/eris/

Pluto-http://www.dimensionsguide.com/what-is-the-size-of-pluto/

Haumea-http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080923.html

Makemake-http://www.universetoday.com/15535/newest-dwarf-planet-and-plutoid-makemake/

Makemake-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makemake_(dwarf_planet)