Dwarf planets are celestial bodies that orbit around the sun. Dwarf planet is a term for an object that is not a planet and not a moon. In 2006 Pluto became a dwarf planet. If it is a dwarf planet it is currently not considered a planet in our solar system.

So, there are now eight planets. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They are listed in order of which planet is closest to the sun. Mercury is closest to the sun and Neptune is furthest from the sun.

Pluto is not alone in its dwarf planet status. When Pluto was demoted (the opposite of promoted) to a dwarf planet it became one of three dwarf planets. The dwarf planets are Ceres, Pluto and Eris. Scientists think there are about seventy more objects in the solar system that can be considered dwarf planets.

Scientists spend a good deal of time measuring objects in space to see if they are planets. They don’t have to leave the earth’s atmosphere to accomplish this either. They can measure objects by comparing them to objects near by right from the ground. If the celestial body in space is not bigger than the objects near-by than it is called a dwarf planet. Wouldn’t it have been cool to be the scientist who measured Pluto and called it a dwarf planet?

Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet measured, however it is the largest object in an asteroid belt. It is called a dwarf planet because of its round shape. It is the smaller object between the planets Mars and Jupiter.

The dwarf planet Pluto is farther away than Ceres from the sun after the planet Neptune. Pluto is bigger than Ceres. Pluto is between the planet Neptune and the dwarf planet Eris.

Eris is the farthest dwarf planet away from the sun. It is larger than Pluto. Eris is the largest dwarf planet in the solar system.

So if we lined up the three dwarf planets with the eight planets in our solar system it would look like this: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, dwarf planet Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and dwarf planets Pluto and Eris.

If scientists find more celestial bodies they will have to measure them. After they measure them they can find out if they are a planet, a dwarf planet or something else. It is a big solar system out there and some day it will seem bigger.