Haumea : Dwarf Planet |
Located in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune’s orbit, the dwarf planet Haumea is an oval-shaped object with a radius of about 385 miles (just under 10 times smaller than Earth), and two moons, Namaka and Hi’iaka. A day on Haumea lasts only four Earth hours, making it one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system. Originally designated 2003 EL61 (and nicknamed Santa by one discovery team), Haumea resides in the Kuiper belt and is roughly the same size as Pluto. Haumea is one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system. Its fast spin distorts Haumea's shape, making this dwarf planet look like a football. Discovery Haumea was named after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility. Size
and Distance From an average distance of 4,010,000,000 miles (6,452,000,000 kilometers), Haumea is 43 astronomical units away from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 6 hours to travel from the Sun to Haumea. Orbit
and Rotation It is possible a massive impact billions of years ago set off Haumea's spin and created its moons. |