1 min read

Artist’s Concept of Makemake and Its Newly Discovered Moon (with title)

This artist's concept shows the distant dwarf planet Makemake and its newly discovered moon. Makemake and its moon, nicknamed MK 2, are more than 50 times farther away than Earth is from the sun. The pair resides in the Kuiper Belt, a vast reservoir of frozen material from the construction of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Makemake is covered in bright, frozen methane that is tinted red by the presence of complex organic material. Its moon is too small to retain ices as volatile as methane, even given the feeble heating by the very distant sun, and likely has a much darker surface. MK 2 is orbiting 13,000 miles from the dwarf planet, and its estimated diameter is roughly 100 miles across. Makemake is 870 miles wide.

About the Object

R.A. Position
R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
12h 49m 39.0s
Dec. Position
Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
26° 22' 12.0"

About the Data

Data Description
Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
The HST data were taken from proposal 13668 PI: M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), W. Grundy (Lowell Observatory), and K. Noll (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center). The science team comprises A. Parker and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), W. Grundy (Lowell Observatory), and K. Noll (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center).

Object Name
Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
Makemake, Dwarf Planet (136472), Moon S/2015 (136472) 1, MK 2
Object Description
Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
Kuiper Belt Object, Dwarf Planet (136472) Makemake (870 miles in diameter) and moon S/2015 (136472) 1, MK 2 (100 miles in diameter)
Release Date
April 26, 2016
Science Release
Hubble Discovers Moon Orbiting the Dwarf Planet Makemake
Read the release
Credits
NASA, ESA, and A. Parker (Southwest Research Institute)

Downloads

PDF
(3.1 MB)
2400 × 3000
(1.45 MB)
200 × 200
(14.63 KB)
320 × 400
(29.75 KB)
960 × 1200
(266.21 KB)

Related Images & Videos

Makemake and Its Moon

This Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the first moon ever discovered around the dwarf planet Makemake. The tiny moon, located just above Makemake in this image, is barely visible because it is almost lost in the glare of the very bright dwarf planet. The moon, nicknamed MK...

Makemake and Its Moon (Non-Annotated)