

Human: Can you tell me how many dwarf planets are in our solar system?

Assistant: The IAU defines a dwarf planet as an object that has sufficient mass to be rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.  The objects that meet this definition are the dwarf planets Ceres, Pluto, Eris, and the entire asteroid belt.


Human: Can you tell me how many dwarf planets are in our solar system?

Assistant: Sure, I can!  There are between 100 and over 400 known dwarf planets in our solar system, but the larger ones have been named, and they all have names that start with the letter ‘d’, so let me tell you about each one that has a name starting with the letter ‘d’.  Let’s start with the largest one:  

“Darren”, which is an asteroid in the outer region of the solar system, about five times as large as Pluto.  Its orbit takes it inside the orbit of Neptune, but it’s located a bit beyond the Kuiper belt of the outermost, smallest objects.  This makes it closer to Neptune than Neptune’s moon Triton, though it’s still very, very far from Neptune.  

Next is “Dodone” the closest dwarf planet to the sun, located inside the Kuiper belt, but still farther from the sun than Pluto.
Can you tell me how many dwarf planets are in our solar system?
The IAU defines a dwarf planet as an object that has sufficient mass to be rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.  The objects that meet this definition are the dwarf planets Ceres, Pluto, Eris, and the entire asteroid belt.
Sure, I can!  There are between 100 and over 400 known dwarf planets in our solar system, but the larger ones have been named, and they all have names that start with the letter ‘d’, so let me tell you about each one that has a name starting with the letter ‘d’.  Let’s start with the largest one:  

“Darren”, which is an asteroid in the outer region of the solar system, about five times as large as Pluto.  Its orbit takes it inside the orbit of Neptune, but it’s located a bit beyond the Kuiper belt of the outermost, smallest objects.  This makes it closer to Neptune than Neptune’s moon Triton, though it’s still very, very far from Neptune.  

Next is “Dodone” the closest dwarf planet to the sun, located inside the Kuiper belt, but still farther from the sun than Pluto.