Dwarf planet be discovered, and the number of planets would start growing quickly if Pluto were to remain a planet. Eris (then known as ) was discovered in January 2005; it was thought to be slightly larger than Pluto, and some reports informally referred to it as the "tenth planet". As a consequence, the issue became a matter of intense debate during the IAU General Assembly in August 2006. The IAU's initial draft proposal included Charon, Eris, and Ceres in the list of planets. After many astronomers objected to this proposal, an alternative was drawn up by the Uruguayan astronomers Julio Ángel
Dwarf planet list of hundreds of candidate objects, ranging from "nearly certain" to "possible" dwarf planets."" As of Feb 2018, Brown's list includes 952 objects, identifying ten known trans-Neptunian objects—the four accepted by the IAU plus the six bodies: , , , , and —as "near certain", with another 26 "highly likely". Notably, (1535 km) has a larger diameter than the dwarf planet Makemake (1430 km). Stern states that there are more than a dozen known dwarf planets. Only two of these bodies, Ceres and Pluto, have been observed in enough detail to demonstrate that they actually fit the IAU's definition. The