Pluto before Charon was discovered. Pluto is more than twice the diameter and a dozen times the mass of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is less massive than the dwarf planet Eris, a trans-Neptunian object discovered in 2005, though Pluto has a larger diameter of 2376.6 km compared to Eris's approximate diameter of 2326 km. Determinations of Pluto's size had been complicated by its atmosphere, and hydrocarbon haze. In March 2014, Lellouch, de Bergh et al. published findings regarding methane mixing ratios in Pluto's atmosphere consistent with a Plutonian diameter greater than 2360 km,
Eris (dwarf planet) retains an oblique reference to Eris's old informal name "Xena", portrayed on TV by Lucy Lawless. In the 2010s, on the heels of the successful Pluto flyby there were multiple studies for follow-on missions to explore the Kuiper belt, and Eris was evaluated among the candidates. It was calculated that a flyby mission to Eris could take 24.66 years using a Jupiter gravity assist, based on launch dates of 3 April 2032 or 7 April 2044. Eris would be 92.03 or 90.19 AU from the Sun when the spacecraft arrives. Eris (dwarf planet) Eris (minor-planet designation 136199 Eris) is the