Eris

large, distant body of the solar system, revolving around the Sun well beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto in the Kuiper belt. It was discovered in 2005 in images taken two years earlier at Palomar Observatory in California, U.S. Before it received its official name, Eris was known by the provisional designation 2003 UB₃₁₃; it was nicknamed “Xena” by its discoverers and also briefly termed the “10th planet.”

Its diameter of roughly 2,500 km (1,550 miles) makes Eris slightly larger than Pluto. Both it and Pluto are classified as dwarf planets under categories defined in August 2006 by the International Astronomical Union for bodies orbiting the Sun.

Both bodies are also classified as plutoids, members of a subcategory created by the IAU in June 2008 for dwarf planets that are farther from the Sun than Neptune. (For discussions of these categories, &see; planet.) Eris revolves once about every 560 Earth years in a highly tilted, elliptical orbit. From its spectrum its surface appears to be coated with white methane ice. Eris has at least one moon, Dysnomia, about one-eighth its size, with an orbital period about two weeks long.

Clark R. Chapman