Showing posts with label Dwarf planet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dwarf planet. Show all posts

November 2, 2016

Ceres

Ceres, catch taken with realist brightness
since SpaceEngine
Ceres is the fifth nearest planet to the Sun (the nearest dwarf planet), and it is the smallest planet in the solar system, it is also the only dwarf planet that isn't a TNO (Trans-Neptunian object) Its name comes from the roman deity Ceres.

Ceres is a Dwarf Planet (Cool Selena), located between Mars and Jupiter, in the main Asteroid Belt, it has a mass of 9.43 x 10^20 Kg and a diameter of 952.4 Km, therefore, its density is 2.07 g/cm³ (Approximately).

Although it is less massive planet, Ceres is the largest and most massive object in the Asteroid Belt (its mass represents a third of the total mass of the Asteroid Belt), this planet in the past was considered a asteroid, but it has a lot of mass to be an asteroid and it has very little mass to be a planet, so since 2006 the International Astronomical Union considers that Ceres is a Dwarf  Planet.

Its rotation period is 9.07 hours and its orbital period is 1682 days.  This planet doesn't have natural satellites, because it has little gravity (0,28 m/s² or 0,029 g on its surface).

October 30, 2016

Pluto

Pluto and Charon, catch without realist
brightness taken since SpaceEngine.
Pluto is a dwarf planet discovered in 1930 by american astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh, it is a TNO (Trans-Neptunian object), that is, it is beyond the orbit of Neptun, also is the object biggest of the Kuiper Belt.

Pluto has a mass of 0,002185 M⊕ (1.25×10²² kg) and a diameter of  0.18579 D⊕ (23995 Km), therefore, its density is 1.88 g/cm³.

Its orbital period is 248 years, however as it has a very eccentric orbit, Pluto is closer the Sun than Neptune for 20 years (at perihelion), during the rest of the time Pluton is farther from the sun than Neptune.

Pluto has 5 Satellites, these are: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. The largest satellite pluto is Charon and both form a binary system. 

(if you want to know more about the binary system of Pluto and Charon press here).