Dwarf Planets trivia
Dwarf Planets Mini Quiz
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
What major debate did Eris's discovery help intensify?
Eris's Pluto-like size helped prompt the IAU's 2006 decision to define planets and classify Pluto and Eris as dwarf planets.
Ceres takes its name from which Roman deity?
The word "cereal" comes from Ceres's name, reflecting her connection to grain and harvests.
Pluto's orbital resonance protects Pluto from close encounters with which planet?
Pluto and Neptune follow a repeating orbital rhythm that keeps their closest approaches safely separated, despite overlapping orbital distances.
What causes dwarf planet Haumea's unusual elongated shape?
Haumea turns once in roughly four hours, and centrifugal effects from that speed stretch the body along its equator.
Pluto's dwarf-planet status reflects Pluto's inability to:
Pluto meets the roundness and Sun-orbiting criteria, but its gravity does not dominate the other objects sharing its orbital zone.
Which moon orbits the dwarf planet Eris?
Dysnomia's orbit helps astronomers estimate Eris's mass; Dysnomia is named for Eris's mythological daughter.
Pluto and Charon are unusual because the pair:
Pluto and Charon orbit a barycenter outside Pluto, making the pair more like a binary system than a typical planet-moon pair.
Ceres orbits in which region of the Solar System?
Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter.
Which region contains dwarf planet Haumea?
Haumea travels beyond Neptune in a cold, flattened zone filled with icy bodies and other dwarf planets.
What unusual feature does dwarf planet Haumea possess?
Astronomers detected Haumea's ring during a 2017 stellar occultation, when Haumea briefly blocked a star.