KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PLUTOID / NOTES
KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PLUTOID / NOTES
Any dwarf planet that orbits beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Currently only two known objects fall into this subcategory, Pluto and Eris.
Plutoid was defined by the International Astronomical Union’s Committee on
Small Body Nomenclature in June 2008. According to an earlier (2006) definition
of the IAU, dwarf planets are objects that “have sufficient mass for their self-gravity
to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium
(near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared [their orbits of debris]”.
This definition includes the largest asteroid Ceres. However, only Pluto and
Eris meet the further criterion that a plutoid has an orbit that takes it
further from the Sun than Neptune.
KERALA PSC / ASTRONOMY / PLUTOID / NOTES
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