Solar System/Haumea

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Image of Haumea.

Haumea (pronounced how-MAY-uh) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, making it a plutoid. It is one-third as massive as Pluto. It is very probably shaped as an ellipsoid despite having collapsed under its own gravity into an equilibrium shape (a requirement for a dwarf planet); the non-spherical shape is due to the unknown but extremely rapid rate of rotation. An estimate of its dimensions is 1960 × 1518 × 996 kilometers.

Orbit[edit | edit source]

Haumea orbits the Sun with an average distance of 43.13 AU and an orbital eccentricity of 0.20. Its plane of revolution is inclined by 28.22° to that of Earth. Haumea's orbital period is 283.28 years.