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Makemake
Makemake ( minor-planet designation: 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet and the largest of what is known as the classical population of Kuiper belt objects, with a diameter approximately that of Saturn's moon Iapetus, or 60% that of Pluto. It has one known satellite. Its extremely low average temperature, about , means its surface is covered with methane, ethane, and possibly nitrogen ices. Makemake shows signs of geothermal activity and thus may be capable of supporting active geology and harboring an active subsurface ocean. Makemake was discovered on March 31, 2005, by a team led by Michael E. Brown, and announced on July 29, 2005. It was initially known as and later given the minor-planet number 136472. In July 2008, it was named after Makemake, a creator god in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, under the expectation by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that it would prove to be a dwarf planet. History Discovery Makemake was discovered on March 31, 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makemake Symbol (bold)
Makemake (minor-planet designation: 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet and the largest of what is known as the Classical Kuiper belt object, classical population of Kuiper belt objects, with a diameter approximately that of Saturn's moon Iapetus (moon), Iapetus, or 60% that of Pluto. It has S/2015 (136472) 1, one known satellite. Its extremely low average temperature, about , means its surface is covered with methane, ethane, and possibly solid nitrogen, nitrogen ices. Makemake shows signs of geothermal activity and thus may be capable of supporting active geology and harboring an active subsurface ocean. Makemake was discovered on March 31, 2005, by a team led by Michael E. Brown, and announced on July 29, 2005. It was initially known as and later given the minor-planet number 136472. In July 2008, it was named after Makemake (deity), Makemake, a creator god in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, under the expectation by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
S/2015 (136472) 1
S/2015 (136472) 1, unofficially nicknamed MK2 by the discovery team, is the only known moon of the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet Makemake. It is estimated to be in diameter and has a semi-major axis of at least from Makemake. Its orbital period is at least 12 days if it has a circular orbit. Observations leading to its discovery occurred in April 2015, using the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, and its discovery was announced on 26 April 2016. Physical characteristics S/2015 (136472) 1 is extremely faint, with an apparent magnitude of 25 in visible light. The satellite is 1,300 times fainter than Makemake, which corresponds to a magnitude difference of 7.80 between it and Makemake. Prior to the discovery S/2015 (136472) 1, measurements of Makemake's far-infrared thermal emission by the '' Spitzer'' and '' Herschel'' space telescopes showed that the dwarf planet emits more thermal radiation than expected for its size and brightness in visible light. This led astr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dwarf Planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which for decades was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept was adopted in 2006. Dwarf planets are capable of being geologically active, an expectation that was borne out in 2015 by the ''Dawn (spacecraft), Dawn'' mission to and the ''New Horizons'' mission to Pluto. planetary geology, Planetary geologists are therefore particularly interested in them. Astronomers are in general agreement that at least the List of possible dwarf planets#Likeliest dwarf planets, nine largest candidates are dwarf planets – in rough order of diameter, , , , , , , , , and . A considerable uncertainty remains over the tenth largest candidate , which may thus be co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makemake (deity)
Makemake (also written as Make-make; pronounced in Rapa Nui) in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island is the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the " Tangata manu" or ''bird-man'' sect (this sect succeeded the island's more famous Moai era). He appeared to be the local form, or name, of the old Polynesian god Tane. He had no wife. Makemake, as a face with large eyes or perhaps a skull with large eye sockets and a phallic nose, is a frequent subject of the Rapa Nui petroglyphs. The Birdman sect Métraux states that Easter Island's "greatest religious festival, the only one concerning which circumstantial details survive, was that of the bird-man, intimately linked with the cult of the god Makemake." Makemake drove the birds to nest on the islet of Motu Nui ('big islet'), the center of the ''tangata-manu'' (bird-man) sect. Four gods were associated with it: Makemake, Haua-tuꞌu-take-take ('Chief of the eggs', usually simply called 'Haua'), ''v� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuiper Belt
The Kuiper belt ( ) is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small Solar System body, small bodies or remnants from when the Formation and evolution of the Solar System, Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock (geology), rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen Volatile (astrogeology), volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia, and water. The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: 90482 Orcus, Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, 50000 Quaoar, Quaoar, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's natural satellite, moons, such as Neptune's Triton (moon), Triton and Saturn's Phoebe (moon), Phoebe, may ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chad Trujillo
Chadwick A. Trujillo (born November 22, 1973) is an American astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and the co-discoverer of Eris, the most massive dwarf planet known in the Solar System. Trujillo works with computer software and has examined the orbits of the numerous trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which is the outer area of the Solar System that he specialized in. In late August 2005, it was announced that Trujillo, along with Michael Brown and David Rabinowitz, had discovered Eris in 2003. As a result of the discovery of the satellite Dysnomia, Eris was the first TNO known to be more massive than Pluto. Career Trujillo attended Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois. He received his B.Sc. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995, and was a member of the Xi chapter of Tau Epsilon Phi, and received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaiʻi in 2000. Between 2000 and 2003 Trujillo was a postdoctoral scholar at Cal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cubewano
A classical Kuiper belt object, also called a cubewano ( "QB1-o"), is a low-eccentricity Kuiper belt object (KBO) that orbits beyond Neptune and is not controlled by an orbital resonance with Neptune. Cubewanos have orbits with semi-major axes in the 40–50 AU range and, unlike Pluto, do not cross Neptune's orbit. That is, they have low-eccentricity and sometimes low-inclination orbits like the classical planets. The name "cubewano" derives from the first trans-Neptunian object (TNO) found after Pluto and Charon: 15760 Albion, which until January 2018 had only the provisional designation (15760) . Similar objects found later were often called "QB1-os", or "cubewanos", after this object, though the term "classical" is much more frequently used in the scientific literature. Objects identified as cubewanos include: * 15760 Albion (aka and gave rise to term 'Cubewano') * 136472 Makemake, the largest known cubewano and a dwarf planet * 50000 Quaoar and 20000 Varuna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Rabinowitz
David Lincoln Rabinowitz (born 1960) is an American astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and researcher at Yale University. Career David Rabinowitz has built CCD cameras and software for the detection of near-Earth and Kuiper belt objects, and his research has helped reduce the assumed number of near-Earth asteroids larger than 1 km by half, from 1,000–2,000 to 500–1,000. He has also assisted in the detection of distant solar system objects, supernovae, and quasars, thereby helping to understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System and the dark energy driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. Collaborating with Michael Brown and Chad Trujillo of the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team, he has participated in the discovery of several possible dwarf planets such as 90377 Sedna (possibly the first known inner Oort cloud object), 90482 Orcus, Eris (more massive than Pluto), , and , though no-one would get credit for Haumea. Together with Tom Gehrels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trans-Neptunian Object
A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has an orbital semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (AU). Typically, TNOs are further divided into the classical and resonant objects of the Kuiper belt, the scattered disc and detached objects with the sednoids being the most distant ones. As of February 2025, the catalog of minor planets contains 1006 numbered and more than 4000 unnumbered TNOs. However, nearly 5900 objects with semimajor axis over 30 AU are present in the MPC catalog, with 1009 being numbered. The first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered was Pluto in 1930. It took until 1992 to discover a second trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun directly, 15760 Albion. The most massive TNO known is Eris, followed by Pluto, , , and . More than 80 satellites have been discovered in orbit of trans-Neptunian objects. TNOs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris (dwarf planet), Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of the Moon and one-third its volume. Originally considered a planet, its classification was changed when astronomers adopted a new definition of planet, definition of ''planet''. Pluto has a moderately Orbital eccentricity, eccentric and Inclination, inclined orbit, ranging from from the Sun. Light from the Sun takes 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its orbital distance of . Pluto's eccentric orbit periodically brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune, but a stabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
