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ScienceDaily (June 18, 2007) — Aptly named after the Greek goddess of conflict is the icy dwarf planet, Eris. The object was discovered by astronomer Mike Brown of Caltech in the outer reaches of the Kuiper belt in 2005.
Eris is slightly larger than Pluto.
Brown has now determined that Eris is also more massive than Pluto. This new detail was determined by observations of Eris’ tiny moon Dysnomia. The Hubble Space Telescope and Keck Observatory took images of the moon’s movement, from which Brown precisely calculated Eris to be 27 percent more massive than Pluto.
Currently, Eris is more than three times farther from the Sun than Pluto. It is so cold out there that the [dwarf] planet’s atmosphere has frozen onto the surface as a frosty glaze. The coating gleams brightly, reflecting as much sunlight as fresh fallen snow. The path Eris takes around the Sun is shaped like an oval rather than a circle. In about 290 years, Eris would move close enough to the Sun to partially thaw. Its icy veneer will melt away revealing a rocky, speckled landscape similar to Pluto’s.
Adapted from materials provided by NASA.
Solar System Now Has TEN Planets
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