Haumea

Haumea is a special dwarf planet in our solar system. It is a little different from the other planets and was only discovered in 2003. Haumea turns very far away around the sun. This area is also called the Kuiper Belt and lies much further than the last planet of our solar system.

What makes Haumea so special is its shape. It is not completely round like the earth or a ball. It looks more like an elongated egg! This is because he turns around his axis very quickly (almost four hours). The dwarf planet has a diameter of 1150 kilometres and takes about 284 years to rotate once around the sun. Haumea also has a few small moons. These moons are travelling with him in space.

In 2017, a group of Spanish astronomers discovered that Haumea has a large ring with a width of 70 km and a radius of 2287 km. It is the first time that astronomers have discovered a ring at a dwarf planet in the solar system.

This dwarf planet is named after a Hawaiian goddess who has to do with fertility and birth.