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Dwarf Planets

Dwarf Planets. Pluto. Neptune’s orbit also didn’t quite match Kepler’s laws. In the late 1800’s Lowell predicted a ninth planet. It was discovered in 1929 as a faint star that moved slightly each day. Pluto’s orbit is sometimes inside Neptune’s. Neptune. Sun. Pluto. Pluto.

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Dwarf Planets

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  1. Dwarf Planets

  2. Pluto • Neptune’s orbit also didn’t quite match Kepler’s laws. • In the late 1800’s Lowell predicted a ninth planet. • It was discovered in 1929 as a faint star that moved slightly each day. • Pluto’s orbit is sometimes inside Neptune’s. Neptune Sun Pluto

  3. Pluto • No spacecraft has yet visited Pluto. • Adaptive optics have imaged part of Pluto’s surface.

  4. Ice Ball • Pluto is small (seven moons are larger). • Pluto has low density. • 60% stony core. • 40% frozen gas: nitrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, and water. • Some ice can vaporize when Pluto is at its closest point to the sun. This forms a thin atmosphere.

  5. Charon • Pluto’s moon Charon is almost as big as Pluto. • The pair can be viewed as a double planet and they are tidally locked to each other. • Charon has more water ice on the surface than Pluto.

  6. Classifying Pluto • The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are rocky. • The outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are gas giants. • Pluto doesn’t fit in; it’s icy mixed with rock and carbon.

  7. Kuiper Belt • Gerard Kuiper suggested in the 1940’s that there was a ring of icy objects from the early solar system beyond the orbit of Pluto. • Confirmed in 1992 • Many times the mass of the asteroid belt Pluto Kuiper Belt Neptune’s orbit

  8. Kuiper Belt Objects • Hundreds of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) have been found. • Sizes from 50 to 2400 km across. • Eris is the largest KBO • Astronomers estimate 100,000 KBOs larger than 100 km.

  9. Planets Redefined • The discovery of Eris forced astronomers to create a better definition of a planet (2006). • In orbit around the Sun • Sufficient mass to assume a nearly round shape • Cleared the neighborhood around its orbit • A dwarf planet was defined as a new category. • Not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit • Not a satellite of a planet

  10. History of Planets Scientific American

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