It is speculated to be made completely out of ice. Its nearly circular orbit lasts about 16 days. Spectrum analysis indicates it has very dark colored surface, very different from Eris. Since the mission to Pluto was a success, multiple studies arose for follow-on missions to deeper explore the Kuiper belt, Eris was evaluated among the candidates.
However, there are no clear missions stated to take place, yet. Eris Facts Eris is the same size as Pluto, but three times further from the Sun! Home » Planets » Dwarf Planets » Eris. It is the most distant discovered dwarf planet from the Sun and has the greatest mass of the five dwarf planets.
It was nicknamed Xena by the team, and later named Eris, after the ancient Greek goddess of discord and strife. The name fits since Eris remains at the center of a scientific debate about the definition of a planet. It is the second largest dwarf planet, almost as big as Pluto. When Pluto was still considered a planet, and Eris was discovered, it was considered to be the 10 th planet of the Solar System.
It has an average distance of 68 AU away from the Sun. Its actual distance can be checked online, as Eris is constantly tracked. Its apparent magnitude of Formation Eris is a member of a group of objects that orbit in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of Neptune, called the Kuiper Belt. Structure, Surface and Atmosphere Eris has an estimated albedo of 0. Moons Eris has one known satellite, a moon that was discovered in , and was named Dysnomia, after the daughter of the goddess Eris.
Dysnomia Dysnomia is the second known largest moon of a dwarf planet. Life Habitability Due to extreme cold temperatures, it seems unlikely that life could exist there. Did you know? Eris is currently in the Cetus constellation and it will enter the Pisces constellation in At its furthest point from the Sun is reaches outside the Kuiper Belt, yet at its closest point it is much closer to the Sun than Pluto, when Pluto is at its furthest.
It is currently at its furthest point away from the Sun. Because of its distance any atmosphere it might have had, would have frozen and fell to the surface as snow. While most planets in our solar system orbit almost on the same plane, this is not the case in other solar systems, where several giant exoplanets orbit one star all on different planes.
If we used the same logic on those systems, none of these objects could be considered planets. The comparison with the reclassification of asteroids in the 19th century, while often cited to support the IAU decision, is not really appropriate here. When these objects were discovered, none could be resolved into a disk by the telescopes of the time.
It turns out that the first object discovered, Ceres, is spherical after all, and is a complex world that is geologically active and may have a subsurface ocean. Two other objects in the asteroid belt, Vesta and Pallas, are not quite spherical but are much more larger and more complex than the rest of the asteroids.
The Dawn mission showed Vesta to be layered into core, mantle, and crust, just like Earth. Others rightfully argue that Vesta and Pallas deserve their own category in between asteroid and dwarf planet. In the 19th century, all these objects appeared simply as points of light. None could be distinguished from any other, and no one knew anything about the compositions of these worlds. Now that we do know these things, it is clear that the demotion of Ceres was an error, as was the demotion of Vesta and Pallas.
No scientist should decide what the public should say. For me Pluto is a planet and it will always be a planet. If Eris is the size of Pluto then for me Eris is also a planet. Scientists are sometimes hypocrites. The IAU is the governing body in charge of this so let them do what they think makes most sense for the science and live with it! If Pluto would have the mass of Jupiter, would it have cleared its orbit? Would you down degrade Jupiter as a planet when if it is at the distance of Pluto?
Simply saying the ones in charge should be the ones deciding, not the peanut gallery. Either way, this is all semantic based rhetoric and however they go is the way it should be.
The data is the determining factor in science, not a person or group of people. Here we go with the ad hominem attacks. This is what people typically do when they do not have a credible response to an argument.
Look at the Herzsprung-Russell classification system for stars. Our Sun is a G2 V yellow star. Stars are classed into subcategories of subcategories. Could it be because we are comfortable with the knowledge that there are billions of stars out there but have not yet grown accustomed to the fact that there are a also billions of planets, including possibly hundreds in our solar system?
If we find hundreds of spherical objects in the Kuiper Belt, then yes, we have hundreds of planets. Once we learn more about them, we will likely be able to distinguish their varying characteristics and create a classifications system with multiple subcategories. Those IAU members who voted in are NOT experts in this area, as most are not even planetary scientists but other types of astronomers.
Planetary scientists offered to help the IAU create a sound planet definition, and their efforts were rebuffed. Similarly, we should not be asking scientists who do not study planets to define what a planet is. They then compounded their bad decision by absolutely refusing to revisit the discussion even when asked to do so by other scientists on multiple occasions. It seems they want their decision to stand as the last word for all eternity.
That is because the IAU definition specifically states a planet must orbit the Sun rather than a star. Luckily, there are triennial general assemblies and eventually dwarf planets will get their due. Our sun is a dwarf star and yet a star. Same with dwarf galaxies. The shenanigans at the Prague GA are well-documented, as is the petition opposing the new definition signed by over planetary scientists. By the way, Matt you have a grammatical error in the first sentence of your article.
Also, Matt, the latest science has Pluto as being larger than Eris. You can verify this with Bruno Sicardy or Alan Stern. However, New Horizons should settle this question for good on July 14th. That means, whenever Neptune makes three orbits around the Sun, Pluto makes two. The Kuiper belt was named after Gerard Kuiper, after publishing a paper about the region beyond Pluto.
Sometimes, it is also called the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt because astronomer Kenneth Edgeworth has also mentioned the objects there on a paper that he also published.
These bodies have extreme orbits, with eccentricities around 0. However, their eccentric orbits can take hundreds of AU farther. The Kuiper belt is very far from the Sun. In fact, there are only five man-made spacecraft that have made it as far as 50 AU from the Sun. New Horizons is the newest addition to the four spacecraft that have journeyed as far as the Kuiper belt. In , it became the first spacecraft to do a flyby and explore the dwarf planet Pluto.
After that, it visited Arrokoth, a Kuiper belt object that is shaped like a snowman. Calculations show that a mission to Eris would take about 25 years.
However, this does not mean that the spacecraft will not be busy. It will continue to gather data about the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, as well as explore the environment in the Kuiper belt. Also, it took some time to formally name Eris because of the uncertainty of its classification.
Because of that, it was nicknamed Xena, from a TV show. According to the discovery team, they chose the name because it started with the letter X, as in planet X.
At the time, it was unclear whether Eris would be classified as a planet or a minor planet. The name Xena was a television character from the show Xena: Warrior Princess. It was inspired by the Greek goddess of discord and strife. She was the deity of lawlessness, wreaking havoc just like her mother. This moon was given the nicknames Dy and Gabrielle before it was formally named. Eris was given the minor planet designation Eris while its moon, Dysnomia, was designated Eris I.
This is one of the most fitting Eris facts, since its classification was disputed upon discovery. Rejected names for the planet include Xena, Lila, and Persephone. Eris has one natural satellite moon which is called Dysnomia. This moon takes 16 Earth days to complete a full orbit.
Dysnomia is named for the daughter of the goddess Eris in Greek mythology. She is the Greek goddess of lawlessness. Eris was once considered to become the tenth planet of the solar system. That was before the reclassification of Pluto in All of the objects inside the asteroid belt , located between Mars and Jupiter , could fit inside Eris.
Eris is so far from the Sun that its atmosphere sometimes freezes due to lack of sunlight. Scientists believe that the surface of Eris is rocky. This is similar to the surface found on Pluto. It is believed that Eris was originally located inside the Kuiper belt. However, gravitational interactions with Neptune forced the dwarf planet out into the scattered disk region.
It translates to around 14,,, km, which is roughly three times the distance of Pluto. Until Recently, Eris and its moon Dysnomia were the most distant known natural objects in the entire Solar System. Did You Know? Where Is Eris Located? Brown The Kuiper belt is the cold and dark area beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Missions and Explorations The Kuiper belt is very far from the Sun. Behind the Name Eris is the goddess of discord and strife. More Interesting Facts About Eris Eris had its aphelion around and it is expected to reach perihelion in the year The discovery of Eris was one of the reasons for the big debate that changed the definition of a planet.
Since many objects similar to it were discovered, scientists reconsidered their previous criteria. Because of that, Pluto was demoted as a dwarf planet. Except for Ceres, all the dwarf planets are considered plutoids. Eris is denser than Pluto. However, Pluto has more volume than Eris.
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