On January 5, 2005, astronomers at NASA discovered Eris, the second-largest dwarf planet in the solar system.
Eris is just slightly smaller than Pluto, and it orbits the sun about three times farther than Pluto. NASA first thought that Eris was bigger than Pluto, and they originally described Eris as the 10th planet in the solar system. But the International Astronomical Union, or IAU, wasn't too thrilled about adding Ceres to the list of planets in the solar system. Instead, they decided to come up with the first official definition of the word "planet," and that new definition excluded both Eris and Pluto.
Eris is just slightly smaller than Pluto, and it orbits the sun about three times farther than Pluto. NASA first thought that Eris was bigger than Pluto, and they originally described Eris as the 10th planet in the solar system. But the International Astronomical Union, or IAU, wasn't too thrilled about adding Ceres to the list of planets in the solar system. Instead, they decided to come up with the first official definition of the word "planet," and that new definition excluded both Eris and Pluto.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04On January 5th, 2005, astronomers at NASA discovered Eris, the second largest dwarf planet in the solar system.
00:11Eris is just slightly smaller than Pluto, and it orbits the sun about three times farther than Pluto.
00:16NASA first thought that Eris was bigger than Pluto, and they originally described it as the tenth planet in the solar system.
00:22But the International Astronomical Union, or IAU, was not too thrilled about adding Ceres to the list of planets in the solar system.
00:28Instead, they decided to come up with the first official definition of the word planet, and that excluded both Pluto and Eris.
00:36And that's what happened on this day in space.