A celestial body that orbits the sun, has a roughly spherical shape, is farther away from the sun than Neptune, and shares its orbit with other objects.

Similar distant bodies in the solar system will be called plutoids according to a decision by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 2008.

The International Astronomical Union has decided that any object which is orbiting the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune, and large enough for its own gravity to pull it into a spherical shape, will henceforth be classified as a plutoid.

The solar system's only other known dwarf planet is the asteroid Ceres. It is also big and spherical, but because it orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, it is not yet considered to be a plutoid.