Source: Researched & partly provided by NASA Exploration
(Formerly known as Xena)
Diameter: 2,400 km Distance from Sun: 38-97 Astronomical Units or approx. nine billion miles away Elliptical orbit of the Sun: 557 Years (203,600 days) Satellite: 1 Moon : Dysnomia
Discovered By:
Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz- Caltech
Date of Discovery:
08.01.2005 - Kuiper belt
Average Distance from the Sun
3 times the distance as pluto from the sun
Perihelion (closest)
37.77 AU (Astronomical units) 5.65 × 109 km
Aphelion (farthest)
97.56 AU (Astronomical Units) 14.60 × 109 km
Argument of Perihelion
151.430 5°
Semi-major Axis
67.67 AU 10.12 × 109 km
Eccentricity
0.44177
Average Orbital Velocity
3.436 KM/s
Mean Anomally
197.634 27°
Inclination (tilt)
44.187°
Longitude of Ascending Node
35.869 6°
Mean Radius
1300+200-100 km
Mass
(1.67±0.02) × 1022 kg
Equatorial Surface Gravity
~0.8 m/s²
Sidereal Rotation Period
> 8 h?
Albedo
0.86 ± 0.07
Apparent Magnitude
18.7
Absolute Magnitude (H)
-1.12 ± 0.01
Angular Diameter
40 milli-arcsec
Temperature (Aphelion) (Perihelion)
-405°F (-243°C) (-360°F/-218°C).
Spectra Data Atmosphere
Methane, Nitrogen
Carbon dioxide, ammonia, water ice, dirtlike material
Category:
A Pluton (based on similar orbit to Pluto)
Dwarf Planet Data
Photo Courtesy: NASA,ESA and M.Brown (Caltech)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed what, at the time was known as the "tenth planet originally " nicknamed "Xena " but this was renamed Eris after the Greek Goddess of discord and strife for the first time and has found that it is only just a little larger than Pluto. Though previous ground-based observations suggested that Xena was about 30 percent greater in diameter than Pluto, Hubble observations taken on Dec. 9 and 10, 2005, yield a diameter of 1,490 miles (with an uncertainty of 60 miles) for Xena.It's believed that the "10th planet" originated in the Kuiper Belt, a region beyond the orbit of Neptune and extending out perhaps 30 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
"Eris" is in a highly elongated orbit that takes it out well beyond the realm of Pluto and then back in again. At its closest point, "Eris" comes within 38 AU (one AU equals the distance from the Earth to the Sun, or about 93 million miles) of the center of the Solar System. Then, 274 years later, it's out 97 AU, or some 9 billion miles from the Sun.
