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In 1992, minor planet (15760) Albion was discovered, the first Kuiper belt object (KBO) since Pluto (in 1930) and Charon (in 1978). [16] Since its discovery, the number of known KBOs has increased to thousands, and more than 100,000 KBOs over 100 km (62 mi) in diameter are thought to exist. [ 17 ]
Quaoar (minor-planet designation: 50000 Quaoar) is a large, ringed dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune.It has an elongated ellipsoidal shape with an average diameter of 1,090 km (680 mi), about half the size of the dwarf planet Pluto.
Ixion was the largest and brightest Kuiper belt object found when it was discovered. [53] [21] [29] Under the assumption of a low albedo, it was presumed to have a diameter around 1,200 km (750 mi), which would have made it larger than the dwarf planet Ceres and comparable in size to Charon. [21]
Dwarf planets: Dwarf planets, other than Ceres, are plutoids that have elliptical orbits: [25] [26] [27] Ceres, 2.8 AU in the asteroid belt; Orcus 39.4 AU, Trans-Neptunian-Kuiper belt object; Pluto 39 AU, Kuiper belt (a planet until 2006) Haumea 43 AU, Kuiper belt; Makemake 45.8 AU, Kuiper belt; Eris 95.6 AU, Kuiper belt; Gonggong Scattered ...
Its orbit revealed that it was a new planet, Uranus, the first ever discovered telescopically. [20] Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres in 1801, a small world between Mars and Jupiter. It was considered another planet, but after subsequent discoveries of other small worlds in the same region, it and the others were eventually reclassified as ...
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume, by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris.
Orcus (minor-planet designation: 90482 Orcus) is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt, with one large moon, Vanth. [7] It has an estimated diameter of 870 to 960 km (540 to 600 mi), comparable to the Inner Solar System dwarf planet Ceres.
Other objects, such as 28978 Ixion (discovered in 2001) and 20000 Varuna (discovered in 2000) measure roughly 500 km across. [1] This has led gradually to the acceptance of Pluto as the largest member of the Kuiper belt. [citation needed] The brightest known dwarf planets and other KBOs (with absolute magnitudes < 4.0) are: