Dwarf Planet

What is a dwarf planet? -

Astronomers are constantly discovering new objects that they need to describe. In 2006, they decided on a new class - dwarf planets. These are small, almost round bodies that orbit the Sun in a belt of other objects. The Solar System is also full of other small bodies, including moons that form a flattened belt beyond Neptune, and comets. 

Impact craters - 

Most extraterrestrial bodies heading for the Earth are broken up as they pass through the atmosphere, but sometimes big object, or parts of them, survive and crash onto the surface as meteorites, gouging out vast craters include the Manicouagan Crater, seen here from space.

Mysterious moons - 

Miranda - This is the smallest of Uranus's five major moons. Its rugged surface is covered with huge canyons. 

Io - This moon of Jupiter is active volcanoes that are constantly renewing its surface.

Titan - The largest of Saturn's moons, it is the only planetary moon to have a thick atmosphere. 

Phobos - Mars has two tiny moons. Phobos, the largest, which is 27 km (17 miles) across, and Deimos. 

From out of the sky - 

Rocks from space sometimes make it to Earth and are known as meteorites.

Most come from asteroids, but some originate from the Moon and Mars.

About 3.00 meteorites weighing more than 1 kg (2 lb) land on Earth every year - most fall into the oceans. 

More than 22,500 meteorites have been collected and catalogued.

The largest meteorite over found landed in Hoba West, Namibia in 1920. It weighed 66 tons.  

There are three main types of meteorites:

1. stony                       

2. iron                 

3. stony iron

Bonus fact -

Jupiter's biggest moon, Ganymede, and Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, are both larger than the planet Mercury.

-Keva