How big are the Kuiper belt objects?
Scientists consider Pluto to be one of the largest Kuiper belt objects. It is 2390 km across and is a dwarf planet. The next largest known Kuiper belt objects are Orcus, 2003 EL61 and 2005 FY9. Orcus is about 1600 km (1,000 miles) across; 2003 EL61 is 70% the size of Pluto and 2005 FY9 is about 50% to 70% of Pluto’s size. Recently, scientists found another dwarf planet named Eris that is even bigger than Pluto. The scientists don’t know its exact size, but they think it is about 20% larger than Pluto. At the time it was found, it was almost 100 times further away from the Sun than the Earth. It can come about as close to the Sun as Pluto. Eris has a moon named Dysnomia. The orbit of Eris is tilted almost 45 degrees compared to Earth’s orbit. Pluto’s orbit is only tilted by 17 degrees. Other large Kuiper belt objects about or over 1000 km across are Pluto’s moon Charon, Quaoar, Varuna, Ixion, 1996 TL66, 2002 TX300, 2002 TC302, 2002 UX25 and 2002 AW197. Ceres, the largest asteroid in the
