Pluto's status as a "dwarf planet" is once again stirring debate. This comes as some planetary scientists are trying to have Pluto reclassified as a planet – a wish that's not likely to come true.

Though Pluto has formally been considered a dwarf planet for almost two decades, it still has many lessons left for planetary scientists — including hints about how the solar system formed.

Dwarf planets are smaller planets that do not meet all three categories of a planet. According to NASA, they are round in shape and orbit the sun, but don’t clear their orbital path.

A potential new dwarf planet has been discovered in the outer reaches of the solar system, and its existence poses the ...

The dwarf planet also has one provisional moon, which is nicknamed MK 2. Discovery: March 31, 2005. Size: 888 miles in diameter (1/9 the size of Earth) Distance from sun: 4.3 billion miles.

With this structure, the dwarf planet would get gradually muddier and less frozen at lower depths. A NASA spacecraft got a closer look at Ceres' surface between 2015 and 2018 through the ...

Dwarf planets are big this month. Writing for Space.com, Starry Night Education's Geoff Gaherty points out that two of the best-known dwarf planets, Pluto and Ceres, are in prime positions for ...

Potential discovery of new dwarf planet adds wrinkle to Planet Nine theory By . Nick Butler, Fox News. Published May 31, 2025, 6:00 a.m. ET. Originally Published by: ...

All 19 detections of the dwarf planet 2017 OF201, from August 2011 to October 2018. Credit... Cheng et al., arxiv.org, 2025 ...

For decades, our solar system was thought to have nine planets, with Pluto considered the smallest and farthest. But in 2006, Pluto was officially reclassified as a dwarf planet by the ...

The ring in question orbits Quaoar, a small dwarf planet that lies more than 4 billion miles from the sun—roughly 44 times the distance between Earth and our star.