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Pluto, Eris, and the Dwarf Planets of the Outer Solar System
Presenter: Mike Brown
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The Kuiper Belt is a mysterious region beyond Neptune and stretching more than four billion miles from the Sun. Using powerful telescopes, scientists are scouring the Belt and beyond, finding hundreds of small frigid objects such as Eris, which is larger than Pluto and takes 560 years to orbit the Sun; and smaller Sedna, with an elliptical orbit that takes more than 10,000 years to complete. Join Mike Brown as he describes the hunt for these ancient and elusive worlds.

Mike Brown is Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology and the discoverer, along with colleagues, of Eris (formerly 2003 UB313), Sedna, and other distant bodies.

The 2007 Exploring Space Lectures, Journey Through the Outer Solar System, will feature four world-class scholars discussing current missions to the distant realm of the gas giants, the icy Kuiper Belt, and beyond.

For More Webcasts: http://www.nasm.si.edu/webcasts/archive.cfm?siref=YouTube&video=Kelleher:PlutoErisDwarfPlanets