Author: iamdefinitory

ICE-RICH COMPOSITION – Many dwarf planets contain significant amounts of water, methane, or ammonia ices.

HAUMEA FAMILY – A group of Kuiper Belt objects believed to have formed from a collision involving Haumea.

SPHERICAL SHAPE – A condition for dwarf planethood, requiring that gravity shapes the body into a rounded form.

SCATTERED DISK OBJECTS – Bodies in highly eccentric or inclined orbits due to past gravitational encounters.

CLASSICAL KUIPER BELT OBJECTS – Objects with relatively circular orbits and low inclinations beyond Neptune.

RESONANCE ORBITS – Orbital relationships where gravitational interactions with larger planets, like Neptune, affect the orbits of smaller objects.

PLUTINOS – Kuiper Belt objects in a 3:2 resonance with Neptune, like Pluto.

TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECT (TNO) – Any minor planet that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune.

ORBITAL CLEARING – The ability of a planet to dominate and remove other objects in its orbital path—something dwarf planets fail to do.

CERES – The largest object in the asteroid belt and the first discovered dwarf planet.