Eris

dwarf planet · far from the sun · icy world · space discovery

Heaviest dwarf planet. Eris is the most massive dwarf planet we know of, and it weighs 27% more than Pluto, even though Pluto is slightly bigger. Scientists discovered this distant world in 2005 using telescopes at Palomar Observatory.

Freezing outer realm. Eris lives in the scattered disk, a region of icy bodies far beyond Neptune's orbit. It takes about 557 Earth years for Eris to complete one orbit around the sun, traveling on a very stretched-out path.

Massive icy surface. Eris is about 2,326 kilometers across, and its surface area is as big as Russia or South America. Despite being so far away and cold, Eris is the largest object in our solar system that no spacecraft has ever visited.

Named after discord. Scientists named Eris after the ancient Greek goddess of strife and disagreement, because discovering it caused a big debate about what counts as a planet. This discovery actually led to Pluto being reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Ninth most massive. Eris is the ninth-most massive object orbiting the sun in our entire solar system, ranking above most of the moons and countless asteroids and comets.