Makemake (dwarf planet)

( 136472 ) Makemake [ makemake ], previous, provisional designation 2005 FY9, is a dwarf planet, the subclass of Plutoiden in the Kuiper Belt.

Discovery

The celestial body was discovered on Mount Palomar Observatory on 31 March 2005 by Mike Brown ( Caltech ), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory ) and David Rabinowitz ( Yale University) with the Oschin Schmidt Telescope. The object was the discovery team, the unofficial working title " Easter Bunny" ( Easter Bunny ).

The discovery of Makemake was announced on 29 July 2005. On the same day the great Trans Neptune Haumea and Eris were made known to the public. These three objects are put together with Pluto according to current knowledge, the four largest known Kuiper belt objects dar. The diameter of Makemake is 1430-1500 km ( about 60 % of the diameter of Pluto). Its apparent brightness is like around 17, so it is the second brightest object after Pluto in the Kuiper Belt.

Name

In July 2008 he was given the name Makemake by the creator deity of the culture of Easter Island.

Properties

Makemake moves in an elliptical orbit at a distance between 38.5 AU ( perihelion ) and 52.8 AU ( aphelion ) around the sun. The orbit is inclined about 29 ° to the ecliptic. For one revolution around the Sun the dwarf planet takes about 309 years.

Makemake is considerably larger than Ceres. Due to its absolute V brightness of -0.4 mag ( and thereby be estimated size ) it is virtually certain in hydrostatic equilibrium and - it attaches to the longitudinal axis 1502 and the shorter axis 1430 km - nearly spherical. Following the decision of the International Astronomical Union ( IAU) in July 2008, he was therefore the category of dwarf planets and simultaneously assigned to the sub-category of Plutoiden due to its path.