Exploring Space's Most Bizarre and Enigmatic Discoveries

3. Tiny Planets

Found Year: 2005 Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz found it. Where: The Kuiper Belt Using photographs taken two years prior, Brown, Trujillo, and Rabinowitz's team came to the conclusion in 2005 that Eris would be classified as a dwarf planet. A dwarf planet is not a moon and has not cleared the debris in its orbit, yet it is hefty enough to support a spherical, or largely spherical, shape.

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Small Planets ©Shutterstock/Reedom_Marussia A year later, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet and regained its planetary designation as a result of the trio's discoveries. Another dwarf planet, Ceres, is located in the inner solar system, hanging out in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, whereas the majority of dwarf planets are situated in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune.

4. The Rings of Haumea

Found Year: 2017. It was found by José Ortiz. Where: The Kuiper Belt The circumstellar disc that lies outside of our solar system, past Neptune, is called the Kuiper Belt. Comets, dwarf planets, and other enigmatic celestial objects abound in the Belt. The mysteries and hidden treasures of the Kuiper Belt are becoming more and more apparent as time and surveying technology advance.

The Rings of Haumea ©Diego Barucco at Shutterstock In 2017, one such enigma was solved, although it took twelve telescopes from ten facilities and a whole team of researchers and astronomers. It was revealed that Haumea, a dwarf planet that is the “fastest rotating body known in the solar system,” has a ring resembling Saturn's, making it the first object beyond Neptune to have such a feature.