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Orcus (dwarf planet)

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

An image of the dwarf planet Orcus and its moon Vanth, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing these fascinating objects in space.

Orcus is a special kind of space object called a dwarf planet. It lives far away from Earth, in a place called the Kuiper belt. This belt is beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune.

Orcus has a big moon named Vanth. It is about the same size as another dwarf planet called Ceres. Scientists think Orcus is made of water ice and may have other interesting materials on its surface.

Orcus was found in 2004 by three astronomers from America. Because it is similar to Pluto but also different, some people call it the “anti-Pluto.” Its name comes from an old Roman god of the underworld.

Orcus takes many years to travel around the Sun. It moves in a special pattern with Neptune. Scientists are still learning more about how long it takes Orcus to spin once on its axis.

Orcus and its moon Vanth are interesting objects for scientists to study. They help us learn more about the distant parts of our solar system.

Images

An image showing the location of the dwarf planet Orcus in space, as indicated by a green circle. Courtesy of NASA.
A comparison showing the sizes of the dwarf planet Orcus, Earth, and the Moon in space.
A detailed image of the dwarf planet Ceres, showing bright craters like Haulani and Oxo, captured by the Dawn spacecraft in 2015.
A colorful image of the planet Pluto showing its icy 'heart' region, taken by the New Horizons spacecraft.
A visual guide to the major objects in our Solar System, showing the relative sizes of planets and the Sun.
A colorful collection of planets from our solar system, showing Mercury, Venus, Earth with its Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Each planet image was captured by different NASA spacecraft on their missions to explore space.
A stunning view of our planet Earth as seen from the Apollo 17 spacecraft during its journey to the Moon.
A stunning view of Earth rising over the lunar horizon, as seen by astronauts during the Apollo 8 mission.
An image of the dwarf planet candidate Orcus taken by a telescope, showing a faint celestial object in space with a galaxy nearby.

Related articles

Orcus
Dwarf planet
Kuiper belt
Orbit
Neptune
Pluto

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Orcus (dwarf planet), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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