Eris
Far from the Sun
Eris is a dwarf planet that travels far from the Sun. Its orbit is stretched out, bringing it closer to our star at some times and much farther away at others. It is incredibly cold. Its surface reflects lots of light, which scientists connect with the ice covering it. Eris is similar in size to Pluto.
A moon called Dysnomia circles Eris. By watching that moon move, researchers worked out how much mass Eris has. No spacecraft has visited, so there are no close-up surface photographs. Our picture is an artist’s idea. Discovering Eris helped people rethink what the word planet means.
Play space games → Explore in the planetarium →In the planetarium you can spin this world and look at it from every side.
Artist’s impression · the surface is an illustration.
Sources and images
Celestial maps: Solar System Scope / INOVE · CC BY 4.0. Thumbnails were reduced and shaded. Artistic SVG maps were created for this project.