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Eris Facts

Eris Facts
Eris is the second largest dwarf planet in the solar system. It is also the most massive dwarf planet, and ninth-massive planetary body orbiting the sun. Eris was discovered in 2005 by Mike Brown and his team at Palomar Observatory. Eris has one moon called Dysnomia. Originally Eris was thought to be large enough to be classified as a planet, but further definition of a 'planet' classification by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) led to its classification as a 'dwarf planet'. Eris is named after the goddess Eris, although Mike Brown had originally wanted to name it Lilah.
Interesting Eris Facts:
Mike Brown originally wished to name the planet Lilah - and he had a newborn named Lila. Because of the controversy it might have caused with other members of his team he dropped the name from suggestion.
Persephone was also considered as a name for Eris. Persephone was the wife of Pluto (also a dwarf planet). The dwarf planet also had the nickname Xena for a short time.
The IAU accepted the name Eris on September 13th, 2006.
It takes 557 earth years for Eris to orbit the sun. It rotates once every 25 hours, similar to earth's 24 hour rotation.
Eris is located past the Kuiper belt in our solar system.
Eris is at such a distance from the sun that its own atmosphere freezes regularly and collapses on the planet.
The temperature on Eris is believed to be between -359 degrees F to -405 F.
Eris, the Greek goddess for whom the planet is named, was the goddess of strife and discord. Her spiteful behavior for not being invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding led to the Trojan War.
Eris is smaller than our moon. Pluto is smaller than our moon as well.
Dysnomia is the name of Eris' moon. Dysnomia, in Greek mythology, was Eris' daughter. She was also the demon goddess of lawlessness.
Dysnomia takes 16 days to orbit completely.
Scientists believe that Eris is 1,445 miles in diameter, making it almost the same size as Pluto.
Scientists believe that in the next several hundred years Eris will move close enough to the sun to begin to thaw the ice sheet on its surface. They believe the planet is rocky on the surface.
Eris is considered to be one of the most reflective planets in the solar system, similar to Enceladus (Saturn's moon).
Eris was almost classified as the tenth planet. Following reclassification of planets, Eris and Pluto were both classified as dwarf planets. This reduced the number of planets in our solar system to only eight, rather than nine when Pluto had been a planet.
Eris is big enough to theoretically fit all of the objects in the asteroid belt into it, but it is still smaller than the earth's moon.
Eris is roughly 96.4 astronomical units (more than 14 billion km) from the sun. This is equal to three times Pluto's distance.
Eris is so far away that it is considered to be the furthest known object in the solar system (along with its moon Dysnomia).


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