Eris --Pluto's Dwarf Planet Neighbor

New observations confirm that Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the ninth most massive body known to orbit the Sun directly,whose discovery managed to get Pluto rejected the planet club in 2006, is almost exactly the same size as Pluto. Eris, is a trans-Neptunian object and a member of a high-eccentricity population known as the scattered disc, was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory-based team led by Mike Brown, and its identity was verified later that year. It . It has one known moon, Dysnomia. As of 2011, its distance from the Sun is 96.6 AU, roughly three times that of Pluto. With the exception of some comets, Eris and Dysnomia are the most distant known natural objects in the Solar System.

Image Credit: Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech


Source: The Daily Galaxy