page_title: Dwarf planet
hierarchical_section_title: Dwarf planet
context_page_description: Dwarf planet is the name used to classify some objects in the solar system. This definition was made on August 24, 2006 by the International Astronomical Union, and can be described as; a dwarf planet is a body orbiting the Sun that is big enough to round itself by its own gravity, but has not cleared its orbital path of other rival bodies. At the same meeting the IAU also defined the term planet for the first time. Some astronomers think that the term "dwarf planet" is too confusing and needs to be changed.
  The seven dwarf planets, in order from their distance from the Sun are:
  Ceres
  Orcus
  Pluto
  Haumea
  Makemake
  Eris
  Sedna
  The dwarf planets, unlike the terrestrial and gas giant planets, are in more than one region of the solar system. Ceres is in the asteroid belt. The high orbital eccentricity of Pluto puts it mostly outside Neptune's orbit, but partly inside. The others are in the trans-Neptune region.
  NASA's Dawn and New Horizons missions reached Ceres and Pluto, respectively, in 2015. Dawn had already orbited and observed Vesta in 2011.
  There are many other dwarf planets in the solar system. Most of them are also Kuiper belt objects.
context_section_description: Dwarf planet is the name used to classify some objects in the solar system. This definition was made on August 24, 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and can be described as; a dwarf planet is a body orbiting the Sun that is big enough to round itself by its own gravity, but has not cleared its orbital path of other rival bodies. At the same meeting the IAU also defined the term planet for the first time. Some astronomers think that the term "dwarf planet" is too confusing and needs to be changed.
  The seven dwarf planets, in order from their distance from the Sun are:
  Ceres (in the Asteroid belt)
  Orcus
  Pluto (Pluto was named by an 11-year-old girl because it was the initials of the astronomer who found it. )
  Haumea
  Makemake
  Eris
  Sedna
  The dwarf planets, unlike the terrestrial and gas giant planets, are in more than one region of the solar system. Ceres is in the asteroid belt. The high orbital eccentricity of Pluto puts it mostly outside Neptune's orbit, but partly inside. The others are in the trans-Neptune region.
  NASA's Dawn and New Horizons missions reached Ceres and Pluto, respectively, in 2015. Dawn had already orbited and observed Vesta in 2011.
  There are many other dwarf planets in the solar system. Most of them are also Kuiper belt objects.
caption: Ceres is in the asteroid belt (taken by the Dawn spacecraft)
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}