Dwarf planet

A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which for decades was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept was adopted in 2006.

Quotes

  • In 2006, when the vote on the definition of "planet" was made, and the eight dominant bodies in the solar system were declared (quite rationally) a class separate from the others, a new class of objects was defined. The "dwarf planets" are all of those objects which are not one of the eight dominant bodies (Mercury through Neptune) yet still, at least in one way, resemble a planet. In other words, a dwarf planet is something that looks like a planet, but is not a planet. Specifically this means that dwarf planets are bodies... large enough to become round due to their own gravitational attraction...How many dwarf planets are there? Ceres is the only asteroid that is known to be round. After that it gets complicated. All of the rest of the new dwarf planets are in the distant... Kuiper belt, where we can't actually see them well enough to know for sure if they are round or not.
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