Along
with fellow dwarf planets Pluto, Eris and Haumea,
Makemake is located in the Kuiper Belt, a region
outside the orbit of Neptune. Slightly smaller
than Pluto, Makemake is the second-brightest
object in the Kuiper Belt as seen from Earth
(while Pluto is the brightest). It takes about
305 Earth years for this dwarf planet to make
one trip around the sun.
Makemake
holds an important place in the history of solar
system studies because it—along with Eris—was
one of the objects whose discovery prompted
the International Astronomical Union to reconsider
the definition of a planet and to create the
new group of dwarf planets.
Makemake
was named after the Rapanui god of fertility.
Discovery
Makemake was discovered Mar. 31, 2005 by M.E.
Brown, C.A. Trujillo, and D. Rabinowitz at the
Palomar Observatory.
Size
and Distance
With a radius of approximately 444 miles (715
kilometers), Makemake is 1/9 the radius of Earth.
If Earth were the size of a nickel, Makemake
would be about as big as a mustard seed.
From
an average distance of 4,253,000,000 miles (6,847,000,000
kilometers), Makemake is 45.8 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
and 20 minutes to travel from the sun to Makemake.
Day : 22.48 hours
Year : 305.34 Earth years
Radius: ~ 444 miles | 715 kilometers
Planet Type : Dwarf
Confirmed Moons : 0
Provisional moons : 1
Source
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