Beyond the planets, the Sun holds millions of smaller worlds. The International Astronomical Union recognises five dwarf planets: Ceres in the asteroid belt, and Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake beyond Neptune. Several more icy bodies are probably large enough to qualify. Rubin Observatory is expected to find many more of them.
Asking JPL Horizons…
Asteroid belt
The largest object in the asteroid belt and the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft orbited it from 2015 to 2018 and found bright salt deposits in Occator Crater.
Kuiper belt
Found by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 and reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. New Horizons flew past on 14 July 2015 and found nitrogen-ice plains, water-ice mountains and a hazy blue atmosphere.
Scattered disc
Slightly smaller than Pluto but more massive. Its discovery led the IAU to define “planet” in 2006. It has one moon, Dysnomia.
Kuiper belt
Spins once every 3.9 hours, fast enough to stretch it into an elongated shape. It has a ring and two moons, Hiʻiaka and Namaka.
Kuiper belt
The second-brightest object in the Kuiper belt after Pluto. A small, dark moon was found in Hubble images in 2016.
Large enough to be round, but not yet officially recognised by the IAU.
Scattered disc
Named in 2020 after a Chinese water god. One of the reddest large bodies known, with one moon, Xiangliu.
Kuiper belt
Has a ring far outside the distance where rings are expected to survive, found in 2023 by watching it pass in front of stars. Its moon is Weywot.
Inner Oort cloud
Its orbit swings from 76 au out to about 1,000 au and back over roughly 12,700 years. It is now near its closest approach, due around 2076.
Kuiper belt (plutino)
The “anti-Pluto”: it shares Pluto’s 2:3 resonance with Neptune but always sits on the opposite side of its orbit. Its moon is Vanth.
Orbits, rotation and discovery details come from the JPL Small-Body Database. Daily positions and brightness come from JPL Horizons. Sizes are published estimates. The 3D views are Rubin Observatory’s Orbitviewer, which has pages for selected objects only; the others link to JPL’s orbit diagram. Photos are from NASA missions. No spacecraft has visited Eris, Haumea, Makemake or the candidates, so no close-up photos of them exist.
Data updated .
Positions for 2026-11-02 00:00 UTC, seen from Earth. Smaller magnitude means brighter.
| Object | Constellation | RA / Dec | Magnitude | Distance | To see it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceres | Gemini | 07:37:46.54 +24:02:43.0 | 8.2 | 2.18 au | Binoculars |
| Pluto | Capricornus | 20:24:25.70 -23:41:43.4 | 14.6 | 35.7 au | Large amateur telescope |
| Eris | Cetus | 01:47:29.57 -00:08:48.1 | 18.6 | 94.5 au | Research telescopes and long exposures |
| Haumea | Boötes | 14:42:33.88 +13:22:55.3 | 17.3 | 50.6 au | Too close to the Sun to observe |
| Makemake | Coma Berenices | 13:28:44.43 +19:35:33.5 | 17.1 | 53.5 au | Research telescopes and long exposures |
| Gonggong | Aquarius | 22:28:43.64 -10:18:35.7 | 21.5 | 89.4 au | Research telescopes and long exposures |
| Quaoar | Scutum | 18:43:22.01 -15:08:48.8 | 18.9 | 43.1 au | Research telescopes and long exposures |
| Sedna | Taurus | 04:08:26.22 +08:46:49.8 | 20.7 | 81.9 au | Research telescopes and long exposures |
| Orcus | Hydra | 10:46:31.54 -13:51:49.0 | 19.1 | 48.6 au | Research telescopes and long exposures |
1 au is the Earth–Sun distance, about 150 million km. Viewing hints are a rough guide for a dark site.
255 alerts in the last 7 days were classified as asteroids. Each is a machine-learning guess from a single image, and most are not yet matched to a known object. Naming them, by checking which known asteroid was at that spot at that moment, is coming next.