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Glossary term: Planeta enano

Description: Un planeta enano es un cuerpo celeste con las siguientes propiedades: Orbita alrededor del Sol, tiene masa suficiente para obtener una forma casi redonda, no ha despejado su trayectoria a lo largo de su órbita, y no es una luna. Los planetas enanos suelen orbitar en regiones formadas por cuerpos similares, como es el caso del cinturón de asteroides y el cinturón de Kuiper. En general, los planetas enanos son más pequeños que Mercurio, con estructuras heladas y rocosas. La cantidad de hielo respecto a las rocas depende de su posición en el Sistema Solar. Plutón es el planeta enano más famoso. El término planeta enano no debe confundirse con el término obsoleto de planeta menor.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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Image of Pluto in enhanced colour to bring out differences in surface composition. They include craters, ridges and plains.

Pluto

Caption: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced colour view of the dwarf planet Pluto on in July 2015. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC). Pluto’s surface appears enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. The image resolves details and colours on scales as small as 1.3 kilometers.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons


The asteroid Ceres, roughly spherical with a grey surface, many craters, some of which reveal white subsurface water ice.

Ceres

Caption: True-colour image of the asteroid Ceres acquired by the spaceprobe Dawn in May 2015, at a distance of 13641 km. The prominent, bright crater at right is Haulani. The smaller bright spot to its left is exposed on the floor of Oxo. Ejecta from these impacts appears to have exposed bright material, probably water ice.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / Justin Cowart

License: CC-BY-2.0 Creative Commons Atribución 2.0 Genérica icons