• Question: How many dwarf planets are in the solar system?

    Asked by meg123 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Karen Reed

      Karen Reed answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      I don;t know – I recon Sarah will know.

      Google tells me at least 3

    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi meg!

      There are five – Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.
      That’s in addition to our eight normal planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

      To be a dwarf planet in our solar system, an object must be in orbit around the Sun and have enough mass so that it has become round in shape due to its own gravity. However, unlike normal planets, dwarf planets haven’t cleared out an orbital path around the Sun, so there are still similar objects to them at roughly the same distance from the Sun. Normal planets have a clear path.

      🙂 Sarah

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