Current technology and the inability to travel such a major distance to get a better understanding of Eris is not available at this time. No other information on this is available at this current time. Internal StructureĮris is believed to be made up of a rocky body covered by a thin mantle of nitrogen-rich ice and frozen methane. Eris has the most extreme orbit of all of the sun's satellites in our solar system to date. It takes approximately 561 years for it to complete one rotation around the sun but it has a similar rotation speed to Earth's, one day is approximately 25 hours. At its Perihelion (closest to the sun) it is 5.8 billion km (3.6 billion miles) and at its Aphelion (furthest from the sun) it sits at 14.6 billion km (9.1 billion miles).
Position of Eris in the Solar System / Įris is approximately 10.2 billion km (6.3 billion miles) from the sun located in the Kuiper Belt in what is called the "scattered disk" and is considered a Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO). Eris' discovery prompted the IAU to better clarify this designation and create new categories, such as dwarf planets, to better identify any and all future objects discovered. At the time, there was not clear-cut designation as to what constitutes as a planet. It was in 2005 by astronomers Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz of the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) re-analyzed the images that Eris was discovered and was given the name Xena in reference to the Planet X search and the popular TV show character Xena: Warrior Princess.Īt the time of its discovery, Brown suggested it as the 10th planet in our solar system.
DiscoveryĮris was originally photographed in 2003 but because of its slow movement, it was not detected by the Palomar Observatory software. The founding of this dwarf planet, the largest dwarf in our solar system to date, was the reason behind the 2005 International Astronomical Union's change in the definition of what a planet is and the new classification of dwarf planet was added along with other dwarf planets such as Ceres and Makemake. Just as its namesake, the goddess Eris, the discovery of Eris (aka Xena) created much discord and strife within the astronomy community. Artist's impression of the dwarf planet Eris / eso.org
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