Which are the Dwarf Planets of the Solar System?

There are now 5 officially recognized dwarf planets in the solar system: Ceres, Pluto, Makemake, Haumea and Eris.

For many of us millennials, we have always learnt about the 9 planets orbiting the Sun in the solar system, memorizing them through some Moniker, Abbreviation or Acronym.

However since Pluto’s designation changed to dwarf planet, there are now 8 fully regular planets orbiting the Sun and 5 recognized dwarf planets.

What is a dwarf planet?

As the name suggests dwarf planets are celestial objects classified based on the size. They are larger than asteroids with a more definite spherical shape but smaller than regular planets. A more technical definition that differentiates dwarf planets from regular planets is that dwarf planets do not clear other objects from their path.

So lets learn a little bit about each of them

Ceres: Largest object in the asteroid belt, orbits the Sun from between Mars and Jupiter

Pluto: Earlier the 9^th planet of the solar system further than Neptune with an orbit of 248 Earth years.

Makemake: Orbits the Sun in the Kuiper belt between Neptune and Pluto; named after a Rapa Nui deity

Haumea: nicknamed Santa by the discoverers, it is one of the fastest rotating objects in the solar system distorting its appearance to more oval-like

Eris: The body discovered in 2006 which changed the definition of planets was the first classified dwarf planet. Eris is 68 AUs from the Sun and sunlight takes over 9 hours to reach Eris.