makemake
Latest
Hubble discovers that dwarf planet Makemake has a moon
The Hubble telescope has spotted a shadowy moon with a charcoal black surface orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake. Astronomers first observed Makemake in 2005, but since it's the second brightest icy dwarf planet after Pluto, it took some time to see a satellite that's 1,300 times fainter than the celestial body it's orbiting. Also, it's positively tiny with a diameter measuring 100 miles across, making it but a fraction of our own moon that has a diameter measuring 2,159.2 miles. The Hubble team used the telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 and the same technique that found Pluto's satellite's in 2005, 2011 and 2012 to discover Makemake's companion that has been christened "MK 2." NASA says its presence can tell us more about the dwarf planet, including its density.
