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solar system > planet > dwarf planet

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dwarf planet  

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  • A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to planetary geologists is that, since they are possibly differentiated and geologically active bodies, they may display planetary geology, an expectation that was borne out by the Dawn mission to Ceres and the New Horizons mission to Pluto, both in 2015. Counts of the number of dwarf planets among known bodies of the Solar System range from five-and-counting (the International Astronomical Union) to over 120 (Runyon et al.). Nine of the 10 largest candidates (all but Sedna) have either been visited by spacecraft (Pluto and Ceres) or have at least one known moon (Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, Orcus, and Salacia), which allows their masses and thus an estimate of their densities to be determined. Mass and density in turn can be fit into geophysical models in an attempt to determine the nature of these worlds. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet)

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http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-CX9ZQZX3-S

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