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Topic: dwarf planet

A new SPHERE/VLT image of Hygiea, which could be the Solar System’s smallest dwarf planet yet. As an object in the main asteroid belt, Hygiea satisfies right away three of the four requirements to be classified as a dwarf planet: it orbits around the Sun, it is not a moon and, unlike a planet, it has not cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit. The final requirement is that it have enough mass that its own gravity pulls it into a roughly spherical shape. This is what VLT observations have now revealed about Hygiea. (ESO/P. Vernazza et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS))

Is Hygiea the new Pluto?

Nicole Karlis
This Feb. 19, 2015 file image provided by NASA shows the dwarf planet Ceres, taken by the space agency's Dawn spacecraft from a distance of nearly 29,000 miles (46,000 kilometers). On Friday, March 6, 2015, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft arrives at the mysterious dwarf planet located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter after a nearly eight-year journey. Dawn, which previously visited Vesta, also in the asteroid belt, has already beamed back images of Ceres as it closes in (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA, File)

Sarah Gray
This combination of images provided by the Carnegie Institution for Science shows a new solar system object dubbed 2012 VP113, indicated by the yellow arrow, that was observed on November 2012 through a telescope in Chile. New research published in the journal Nature reveals it’s the second object to be discovered in the far reaches of the solar system far beyond the orbit of Pluto. (AP Photo/Carnegie Institution for Science, Scott S. Sheppard) (AP)

Sarah Gray
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