While the number of planets orbiting other stars stands at 373, it's easy to forget that the estimate of the number of significant bodies in our own solar system is constantly changing. Thought to be covered in water ice, Haumea is the fourth largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, following Eris, Pluto and Makemake. And in the just last ten years many more trans-Neptunian objects with a diameter of at least 500 km have been added to the catalog, according to Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams. That total now numbers seventy.
Wayne
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