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Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun.
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System.
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. [ a ] Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term minor planet , but that year's meeting reclassified minor planets and comets into dwarf planets and ...
Following a proposal of the discovering astronomer, new minor planet names are approved and published by IAU's WGSBN several times a year. [1] The WGSBN applies a set of rules for naming minor planets. [3] These range from syntax restrictions to non-offensive meanings. Over the years the rules have changed several times.
The term 'dwarf planet' arguably contains two words, a noun (planet) and an adjective (dwarf). Thus, the term could suggest that a dwarf planet is a type of planet, even though the IAU explicitly defines a dwarf planet as not so being. By this formulation therefore, 'dwarf planet' and 'minor planet' are best considered compound nouns.
A planet's year depends on its distance from its star; the farther a planet is from its star, the longer the distance it must travel and the slower its speed, since it is less affected by its star's gravity. No planet's orbit is perfectly circular, and hence the distance of each from the host star varies over the course of its year.
Eris (minor-planet designation: 136199 Eris) is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. [22] It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high-eccentricity orbit.
HD 209458 b is an example of a gas giant that is in the process of having its atmosphere stripped away, though it will not become a chthonian planet for many billions of years, if ever. A similar case would be Gliese 436b , which has already lost 10% of its atmosphere.