Dwarf Planets: Definition for Kids

Image: Slideshare

The solar system, where we are, houses eight planets that everyone knows, such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you the definition for kids of dwarf planets Well, in addition to the planets that we know, there are other celestial bodies inferior in size and composition, which follow trails around the sun. At first they were considered mere satellites of the planets, but with time it was found that they had own characteristics, which gave them a great uniqueness.

A planet is a body that rotates forming a series of orbits around a star, in this case the sun. In addition, they have a mass that exceeds the rigid body, that is, the planets must have a body, a well-defined structure, such as Earth or Mars, which are planets that have I usually.

In the same way, they have an atmosphere shaped that surrounds the planet itself and gives it a practically spherical shape. This makes its neighborhood orbit clean, that is, during its movement, it is its orbit that dominates the rest of the bodies that may pass through there.

But What is a dwarf planet? They are celestial bodies that, unlike the superior planets, do not have a clean neighborhood of their orbit, it is In other words, they do not predominate over the rest of the elements, making the orbits not generally the same, so what they tend to deviate in part of its journey, creating a series of instabilities.

Likewise, we can affirm that in the most cases are in asteroid belts. This group was created in 2006 and a series of bodies have been introduced into it that do not have a clean orbit of small objects.

Continuing with the definition of dwarf planets, we have to stop at those that make up this classification:

Ceres

We find it in the asteroid belt there between Mars and Jupiter, in turn being the smallest planet in the entire solar system, with a diameter of 960 x 932 Km. It takes time to turn the sun 4'6 years.

Pluto

Until 2006 it belonged to the list of planets in the solar system, but from that moment on it was demoted to this new group. It lies beyond Neptune, has a diameter of 2,390 km and it takes 248 years to go around the sun. Has five satellites Charon, Nix, P4, P5 and Hydra.

Haumea

With a diameter of 1,400 km, it takes about 285'4 years to go around the sun. It is located in the kuiper belt and in turn, it has two satellites, Haumea I and Haumea II.

Makemake

Inside of the kuiper belt, we found two large objects, this being one of them. It has a diameter between 1,300-1,900 km and its orbital path is about 309'88 years.

Eris

It has a diameter of 2.326 Km, thus being the second largest body on the list. It is located in the scattered disk of the kuiper belt and has a known satellite, Dysnomy. It has been estimated that its journey around the sun takes about 557 years.

To conclude with our lesson on dwarf planets, we must say that today the possibility of expanding the list is being studied, introducing Charon, Orcus, Sedna and Quaoar, although we will have to wait for astronomers to finish their investigations to conclude whether or not they are planets or simple satellites.

Image: Hypertextual

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