Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: International Astronomical Union, Plutoid, Kuiper Belt

• School: Western University
• Department: Earth Sciences
• Course: Earth Sciences 1086F/G
• Professor: Anthony Withers

Document Summary

Beyond the orbit of neptune lurk millions of icy bodies termed trans-neptunian objects. Pluto is one of them and eris another both are also classified as dwarf planets". Because such a stink arose from booting pluto from the classification of regular planet" in 2006, the international astronomical union decided to make a sub-category of tno dwarf called. Of course, while the category was obviously created just for pluto, it was impossible to leave eris out of it. After all, although eris orbited the sun much further out from the sun than pluto, it fit the criteria and was even larger than pluto. Since 2006 the dwarf planets haumea and makemake have been added to the list, but there are many more bodies out there that probably qualify. The second chapter of this unit concerns comets.