Table of Contents

Pg. 2-3 Map of the Solar System

Pg. 4 Introduction to Dwarf Planets

Pg. 7 Locations

Pg. 8-12 Dwarf Planets in our Solar System

Pg. 13 The New Horizons Mission

Pg. 14-17 Activity

Pg. 18 Conclusion

Pg. 19 Our References

Pg. 20 Children's Book

Pg. 21 Dedication Page

Haumea

In our solar system, we have five recognized dwarf planets. You are probably wondering what a dwarf planet is...luckily we can help! Flip the page to blast off into our solar system and learn about our dwarf planets.

Have your ever heard of a dwarf planet?

What is a Dwarf Planet?

Like a planet, a dwarf planet has enough gravity to give it a rounded shape and orbit the sun. The main difference, between a planet

and a dwarf planet, is that a planet

has cleared its path of debris. This

is because a dwarf planet does not

have enough gravity to attract or

push away debris in its path, like a

planet can.

This image depicts the orbit of hundreds of dwarf planets in the Solar System that are located beyond Pluto. Use this link to see the animated version: https://gfycat.com/testyenlightenedbluebreastedkookaburra

LOCATIONS

Ceres is located inside the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Juipeter. The other dwarf planets are located in the outer solar system, in or near, the Kuiper Belt. The largest dwarf planet in the solar system is Pluto, followed by Eris, Makemake, Haumea, and Ceres. The dwarf planets, in order from closest to the sun to farthest from the sun, are Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris being the furthest from the sun.  

Ceres

Ceres was discovered in 1801 and is the smallest of the dwarf planets. Currently, it is also classified as both a dwarf planet and an asteroid.  The diameter of Ceres is only 950 kilometers.

Pluto

Pluto is one of the most famous dwarf planets and was initially classified as the ninth planet from the sun.  It was first discovered in 1930 and orbits the sun in the same amount of time as 248 years on Earth.

Haumea

Haumea is one of the most recently named dwarf planets in our solar system.  Haumea is also the only object in the Kuiper belt other than Pluto known to host more than one moon. The elongated shape is due to its fast rotation. Its shape almost disqualified it from being a dwarf planet, but it just barely met the necessary shape requirement.

Makemake

 Makemake is one of the most recently named dwarf planets in our solar system. It was first discovered in 2005 and its diameter is 1430 kilometers. The moon of Makemake was discovered in 2016.

Eris

Eris was thought to be the largest of the dwarf planets, when it was first discovered. Eris has also traveled far beyond the Kuiper Belt. It was discovered in 2003 and it orbits at an average distance of 68 times the Earths distance from the sun. It takes 561.4 Earth years to circle the sun.

The New Horizons Mission

The year 2015 was considered to be the year of the dwarf planet. In 2015, scientists explored Ceres and Pluto using a space craft (pictured below). This mission was run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.