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Dwarf Planets Aren't Big News, Because Astronomy Is Doing a Great Job


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Dwarf planet Ceres

This animated sequence of images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows northern terrain on the sunlit side of dwarf planet Ceres.

Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Last week, astronomers  announced the discovery of DeeDee, a possible dwarf planet. That name—dwarf planet—means it is like Pluto: Massive enough to assume a spherical shape due to its own gravitational force, but not quite big enough to control the region of space it inhabits.

From Wired
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