Mystery surrounds the planetIris“Located at the farthest reaches of the solar system since it was discovered in 2005.
Eris, which has a size similar to Pluto and is the smallest planet in the solar system, has remained unexplored.
This is at a time when Pluto was explored by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015.
But scientists are working to understand more about Eris, through research studying the internal structure of the distant, frozen planet.
In these studies, researchers rely on the planet’s orbital relationship with its moon, Dysnomia.
Eris has a similar size to the planet Pluto
What did scientists reveal about Eris?
Researchers say the planet contains a solid rocky core beneath a crust of ice.
The composition may be similar to the planet Pluto, which has an icy outer crust and rocks on the inside.
But the difference between Eris and Pluto is that the latter has a higher percentage of ice and is thought to have a liquid ocean underground.
According to what was published in the journal Progress of Science by Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz, scientists already knew that Eris contains a greater percentage of rocks.
“But what we didn’t know was whether Eris had separated the rock from the ice,” he added.
Nemo pointed out that at some point in its life, the planet was subjected to intense heat that caused the ice to melt and the rocks in its center to settle.
He said that this does not mean that the ice on the planet is static, but that it is witnessing a slow undulating movement driven by residual heat from the interior.
Nemo pointed out that the mysterious planet does not contain a liquid ocean inside it.
Iris contains a large proportion of rocks compared to ice
Iris characteristics
As scientists have revealed, Eris’s diameter is about 2,326 kilometers, which is slightly smaller than Pluto’s diameter of 2,370 kilometers.
While the diameter of Earth’s moon is 3475 km, due to its greater concentration of rocks, which are denser than ice.
The mass of Eris is about 25% greater than the mass of Pluto.
Eris is named after the ancient Greek goddess of discord, and the mysterious planet revolves around the sun 68 times.
It takes the planet about 557 years to complete one orbit, while Pluto orbits at an average distance of about 39 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
The Sun appears as a small, bright star in Eris’ sky
As is the case between the Earth and the Moon, dysnomia controls the planet’s tidal movement, according to Nemo.
Standing on Eris, the atmosphere will look like dusk breaking into daylight because it is located at a great distance from the sun.
While the Sun appears as a small star in Eris’ sky, so bright that you could block it out with the head of a pin, according to astronomer and study co-author Mike Brown from the California Institute of Technology.
Why is this information important?
The solar system includes 5 dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union: Ceres, Haumea, and Makemake, in addition to Eris and Pluto.
The new information helps fill some gaps in scientific understanding of Eris, which is the most massive planet among the dwarf planets.
Read also:
Why are NASA and Japan planning to launch the world’s first wooden satellite?
Solid fuel technology.. North Korea’s future weapon
How many species are threatened with extinction? How are they classified?
