Namaka is the smaller, inner moon of the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet

Haumea , discoverer = , discovered = , earliest_precovery_date = March 22, 1955 , mpc_name = (136108) Haumea , pronounced = , adjectives = Haumean , note = yes , alt_names = , named_after = Haumea , mp_category = , orbit_ref = , epoc ...

. It is named after

Nāmaka In Hawaiian mythology, Nāmaka (or Nā-maka-o-Kahai, the eyes of Kahai) appears as a sea goddess in the Pele family. She is an older sister of Pele-honua-mea. She is the daughter of Ku-waha-ilo and Haumea, whose other children are Pele, the H ...

, the goddess of the sea in

Hawaiian mythology Hawaiian religion refers to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of native Hawaiians, also known as the kapu system. Hawaiian religion is based largely on the tapu religion common in Polynesia and likely originated among the Tahitian ...

and one of the daughters of

Discovery

Namaka was discovered on 30 June 2005 and announced on 29 November 2005. It was nicknamed " Blitzen" by the discovery team before being assigned an official name.

Physical characteristics

Namaka is only 1.5% as bright as its parent dwarf planet Haumea and is about 0.05% its mass. If it turns out to have a similar

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...

, it would be about 170 km in diameter. Photometric observations indicate that its surface is made of water ice. Mutual events between 2009 and 2011 were expected to improve the knowledge of the orbits and masses of the components of the Haumean system, but interpreting those observations was greatly complicated by the unexpected non-tidally locked spin state of

Hiʻiaka In Hawaiian religion, Hiʻiaka is a daughter of Haumea and Kāne. Attributes and history Hiiaka is the patron goddess of hula dancers, chant, sorcery, and medicine. Owls are her messengers and are sacred to her. Conceived in Tahiti, Hiiaka was c ...

, the larger moon. Namaka is similar in size to

Makemake Makemake (minor-planet designation 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet and – depending on how they are defined – the second-largest Kuiper belt object in the classical population, with a diameter approximately 60% that of Pluto. It h ...

's moon MK2, despite being smaller. Further observations of Hiʻiaka might allow to determine its rotation period and spin state more precisely, at which point it should be possible to remove its effect from the data obtained in 2009.

Notes

References

{{Solar System moons (compact) Moons of Haumea Trans-Neptunian satellites Discoveries by Michael E. Brown Discoveries by Chad Trujillo Discoveries by David L. Rabinowitz

Discovery

Physical characteristics

See also

Notes

References