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. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Parker (Southwest Research Institute)
Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet – after Pluto – in the Kuiper Belt. The moon, S/2015 (136472) 1 and nicknamed MK 2 – is > 1,300X fainter than Makemake. MK 2 was seen approximately 13,000 miles from the dwarf planet, and its diameter is ~100 miles across. Makemake is 870 miles wide. The dwarf planet, discovered in 2005, is named for a creation deity of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.
The Kuiper Belt ...
Read More
Recent Comments