The dwarf planet Makemake is located on the very outskirts of the solar system, in the Kuiper belt. Only in 2005, it was noticed by a group of American astronomers led by M. Brown, who were conducting research at the observatory on Mount Palomar.

By this time, several dwarf planets were already known, but it was Makemake's discovery that prompted scientists to revise the previous definition of the concept of "planet", adding to the classification new group.

For several years, the celestial body was designated by a code, and sometimes called the Easter Bunny, because it was seen immediately after the celebration of Easter. And only in 2008, after the official recognition of the IAU, Makemake was given the name in honor of the god of abundance of the natives of Easter Island. Thus, it was possible to maintain some connection with the Christian holiday.

Curious information about the planet

Makemake ranks 3rd on the list of dwarf plutoid planets. It has a spherical shape and a diameter of more than 1450 km.

The planet approaches and moves away from the Sun in the range from 5.5 to 8 billion km. To commit full turn around the star, it needs about 308 years. Makemake spends 7.8 Earth hours on an axial rotation.

Scientists estimate the mass of the dwarf planet at 0.05% of the earth's. The absolute magnitude is 0.44.

Makemake is recognized as the 2nd brightest in the Kuiper belt, second only to Pluto. According to 2012 data, its apparent brightness is almost 17 m.

It was originally assumed that the planet had its own atmosphere, but new studies have not confirmed this. The surface of Makemake is almost completely covered with snow and ice containing nitrogen, ethane and methane.

As the planet approaches the sun, the frozen gases heat up and create a temporary atmospheric layer. It persists as long as Makemake is in the "warm" zone. When moving away from the star, the gases gradually freeze again and fall to the surface in granular flakes.

The reddish-brown color of the dwarf indicates the presence of tholins - organic molecules formed by interaction with ultraviolet light.

Makemake satellites could not be found for a long time. Only in 2016, scientists announced that a small dim satellite, called MK-2, had been discovered near the planet.

Locate the outermost Makemake dwarf planet in . It will become a symbol of the greatness of the Cosmos and a wonderful, non-trivial gift for friends and relatives.

Dwarf planet, plutoid, classical Kuiper belt object. Initially designated as 2005 FY9, later received the number 136472. According to astronomers at the Palomar Observatory (California), it has a diameter of 50% to 75% of the diameter of Pluto and ranks third (or fourth) in diameter among Kuiper belt objects. Unlike other large trans-Neptunian objects, Makemake has not yet discovered satellites, and therefore its mass and density remain uncertain.

Makemake is a dwarf planet.

The facility was opened on March 31, 2005 by a team led by Michael E. Brown. The discovery was announced on July 29, 2005 - on the same day as two other large trans-Neptunian objects: and Eris. Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 had the opportunity to observe Makemake, since the object at that time was only a few degrees from the ecliptic, on the border of the constellations Taurus and Auriga, and its visible magnitude was 16m. However, this is too close to Milky Way which made it difficult to observe. Tombo continued to search for other trans-Neptunian objects for several more years after the discovery of Pluto, but failed.

In July 2008, the International Astronomical Union, at the suggestion of Michael Brown, named the object Makemake - in honor of the deity of Rapanui mythology. Brown explained his choice of name by the fact that the object was opened on the eve of the Easter holiday (the Rapanui people are the natives of Easter Island).

In 2009, Makemake was at a distance of 52 AU. e. from the Sun, i.e., almost at the very aphelion. Makemake's orbit, like Haumea's, is inclined by 29° and has an eccentricity of about 0.16. But, at the same time, its orbit is located a little further than the orbit of Haumea, both along the semi-major axis and along the perihelion. The period of revolution of an object around the Sun is 310 years, compared to 248 for Pluto and 283 for Haumea. Makemake will have its aphelion in 2033.

Unlike plutinos, the classical Kuiper belt objects, to which and belongs, do not have an orbital resonance with Neptune (2:3) and do not depend on its perturbations. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Makemake has a slight eccentricity.

By decision of the International Astronomical Union in 2006, Makemake was included in the squad of dwarf planets. On June 11, 2008, the IAU announced the allocation of a subclass of plutoids in the class of dwarf planets. Makemake was included, along with Pluto and Eris.

Dwarf planet Makemake: interesting facts

The object is currently the second brightest in apparent brightness after Pluto, with an apparent magnitude of 16.7m. This is enough to be visible in a large amateur telescope. Based on the albedo of Makemake, we can conclude that the temperature on its surface is approximately 30 °K. The size dwarf planet is not exactly known, but according to studies conducted in the infrared range of the Spitzer telescope, and in comparison with the spectrum of Pluto, it is generally accepted that its diameter is about 1500+400?200 km. This is slightly larger than the diameter of Haumea, possibly making Makemake the third largest trans-Neptunian object after Eris and Pluto. The absolute magnitude of this dwarf planet is ?0.48m, which guarantees that it is large enough to be a spheroid. Weight ~ 4? 1021 kg.

In a letter to the journal en:Astronomy and Astrophysics, Licandro and others reported on research done in the visible and far infrared regions of Makemake. They used the William Herschel Telescope and the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and found that Makemake's surface is similar to that of Pluto. Methane absorption bands were also found. Methane has also been found on Pluto and Eris, but in much smaller quantities.

Studies have shown that the surface of Makemake can be covered with methane grains at least 1 cm in diameter. It is also possible that there are in large numbers, ethane and tholin arising from methane as a result of photolysis under the influence of solar radiation. The presence of frozen nitrogen is also assumed, although not in such quantities as on Pluto or, even more so, on Triton.

It is assumed that the main component of the rarefied atmosphere of Makemake may be nitrogen.

In 2007, a group of Spanish astronomers led by J. Ortiz established its rotation period from the change in the brightness of Makemake - 22.48 hours. In 2009, new measurements of brightness fluctuations made by American astronomers gave a new value for the period - 7.77 hours (about three times less). The authors of the study suggested that we now see Makemake almost from the pole, and for exact definition period must wait several decades.


has no satellites. Satellites, if they exist, would be detected even if the brightness were 1% of the brightness of a dwarf planet, and the distance to Makemake would be 0.4 arcseconds or more.

> Makemake

Makemake- the fourth largest dwarf planet solar system: characteristic, discovery, radius, name, photo, satellites, atmosphere, research.

In 2003, Michael Brown and his team at Caltech launched a series of discoveries that changed our understanding of the solar system. They initially found Eris, which cast doubt on the concept of a planet. Subsequent finds further hinted at the need to change the classification.

In 2005 they noticed Makemake, whose status is still controversial. But the IAU has officially recognized that this is the 4th dwarf planet.

Discovery and name of the dwarf planet Makemake

The dwarf planet Makemake was discovered in 2005 using the Palomar Observatory. The announcement of the discovery coincided with the discovery of Eris. At first, Brown thought to wait, but the experience with Haumea taught him to talk about the finds quickly.

Originally referred to as 2005 FY9 or the Easter Bunny because it was noticed after Easter. In 2008 they gave legal name Makemake. You can admire the dwarf planet Makemake in the photo of the Hubble telescope.

Scientists wanted to preserve the connection with Easter, so they took the name of the deity from the Rapa Nui myth.

Size, mass and orbitdwarf planet Makemake

Spitzer's IR survey, as well as Herschel's data, showed a diameter of 1360-1480 km, and a mass of 4 x 10 21 kg. Thanks to this, the dwarf is in the 3rd position in size among TNOs. The radius of Makemake is 751 km at the equator and 715 km at the poles.

Physical characteristics of the dwarf planet Makemake
Information about the opening
opening date	March 31, 2005
pioneers	Michael Brown, Chadwick Trujillo, David Rabinowitz
Orbital characteristics
Major axis	45.436301 a. e.
Eccentricity	0,16254481
Period of circulation	111867 days
Mood	29.011819°
Apparent magnitude	16,7
physical characteristics
Dimensions	1478±34 km
Surface area	~6,300,000 km²
Weight	~3 10 21 kg
Density	1.7±0.3 g/cm3
Albedo	0.77±0.03

The eccentricity is 0.159, so Makemake approaches the Sun at a distance of 5.76 billion km and moves away to a maximum of 7.94 billion km. It takes 309.09 years to fly around the star, and 7.77 hours to rotate the axis.

Makemake's orbit is located far from Neptune, so the object is free from the influence of the giant. The dwarf is considered to be a dynamically hot body of the Kuiper belt class of objects.

Composition and surfacedwarf planet Makemake

The average density of 1.4-3.2 g / cm 3 indicates that the composition celestial body there is a stone core and an ice crust. Ice is represented by frozen methane and ethane. The Herschel and Galileo telescopes showed that the surface layer is very bright (albedo - 0.81), which looks like a Pluto situation.

The color of the dwarf planet Makemake seems red, which means it is present high level tholins on the ice layer.

Atmosphere dwarf planet Makemake

In 2011, there was an eclipse with a star of 18th magnitude. As a result, Makemake obscured all of her own glow. This means that the dwarf planet lacks a remarkable atmosphere, which does not fit into early conclusions. But methane is able to guarantee a transitional atmosphere.

When a dwarf planet approaches the Sun, the sublimation of nitrogen and other ice occurs, forming a thin atmospheric layer. That would explain the nitrogen depletion.

satellites dwarf planet Makemake

A review of the Hubble telescope in 2016 showed in the photo the presence of the only satellite Makemake S/2015. It extends 175 km wide and is 21,000 km away from the dwarf planet.

Study dwarf planet Makemake

So far, NASA and other space agencies are not preparing projects for the study of the Kuiper belt, and Makemake does not appear anywhere. But, if the probe is sent on August 21, 2024 or August 24, 2036, then the journey will take a little over 16 years. We'll have to use Jupiter as a gravitational slingshot.

The dwarf planet Makemake is no more than two-thirds the size of Pluto. Scientists also assumed that it has the same atmosphere as Pluto, but after examining new data, it became clear that such an opinion is erroneous.

A group of astronomers used three telescopes in Chile to study the dwarf planet. It is worth noting that Makemake is farther from the Sun than Pluto, but much closer than Eris. Recent studies have found that the planet does not have a significant atmosphere. The scientists were also able to determine the amount of light reflected from the surface. The albedo was about 0.77. Such conclusions were made by astronomers due to the passage of the planet in front of the star, which caused an eclipse. It is these phenomena that enable scientists to conduct research and get more detailed information about bodies in the solar system.

The leader of the group of astronomers says that Pluto, Eris and Makemake are among the numerous examples locations of icy bodies away from the Sun. Recent studies are, he says, big breakthrough in the study of this phenomenon.

Makemake (136472 Makemake according to the CMP catalog) is the third largest dwarf planet in the solar system. Refers to trans-Neptunian objects, plutoids. It is the largest known classical Kuiper belt object.

background

Despite the fact that Makemake is a rather bright object and could have been discovered much earlier, for many reasons this did not happen. In particular, it is unlikely to detect a trans-Neptunian object when searching for asteroids and comets, since the speed of TNO movement against the background of stars is extremely low. But Makemake could not be found for a long time either during the search for Pluto in 1930, or during the specialized search for TNO, which began in the 1990s, since the search for small planets is carried out mainly relatively close to the ecliptic due to the fact that the probability of finding new objects in this area is maximum. But Makemake has a large inclination - at the time of its discovery, it was high above the ecliptic, in the constellation Coma Berenices.

Opening

Makemake was discovered by a group of American astronomers. It included: Michael Brown (California technological Institute), David Rabinowitz ( Yale university) and Chadwick Trujillo (Gemini Observatory). The team used the 122cm Samuel Oshin Telescope with 112 CCDs located at the Palomar Observatory and a special program to search for moving objects in the images.

Makemake was first noted on March 31, 2005 in an image taken at 06:22 UTC that same day with the Samuel Oshin Telescope. At the time of its discovery in March 2005, it was at opposition in the constellation Coma Berenices and had a magnitude of 16.7 (compared to Pluto's 15). The object was later found in photographs taken in early 2003. The discovery announcement was officially released on July 29, 2005, simultaneously with the announcement of the discovery of another dwarf planet, Eris.

The orbits of Makemake (blue) and Haumea (green) mapped to Pluto's (red) and the ecliptic (grey). Perihelion (q) and aphelion (Q) are marked with transit dates. The positions of the planets as of April 2006 are marked with spheres illustrating relative size and differences in albedo and color.

Image of Makemake taken on November 26, 2009 through a 61 cm telescope (magnitude 16.9m)

The science

Located at the very edge of the solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake has finally emerged from the twilight and has been spotted by astronomers who can now get a good look at Pluto's younger sister.

Discovered in 2005, the planet Makemake, named after a Polynesian god, is one of five famous objects, similar to Pluto, which forced astronomers in 2006 to reconsider the concept of "planet" and create a new group of "dwarf planets". Makemake is only slightly smaller than Pluto and, like it, orbits outside of Neptune's orbit. Scientists expected this dwarf planet to have an atmosphere, but it has recently been proven that this is not the case.

Exploration of a dwarf planet

An international team of astronomers was able to test for the first time physical characteristics Makemake with three powerful telescopes European Southern Observatory in Chile. Scientists watched the light from a distant star change as the dwarf planet transited in front of it.

"These phenomena are incredibly difficult to predict and observe. However, this the only way get accurate information about important properties dwarf planets", - He speaks Jose Luis Ortiz, head of new research, astronomer from the Spanish Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia. He added that it's like studying coins that are located at a distance of 50 kilometers or more.

Ortiz and his team learned that Makemake had no atmosphere when the light from the star behind it suddenly dimmed, and after the dwarf planet's transit, brightened dramatically. The scientists said this means the planet does not have a permanent global atmosphere in the same way that its neighbor Pluto does. If Makemake had an atmosphere, the star's light would gradually change during its transit.

Where did the planet's atmosphere go?

New research has shed light on some of Makemake's features, and not only has it been able to prove that it is devoid of atmosphere. They were also able to more accurately calculate its size and understand what kind of surface it has. "We believe that Makemake is a ball, slightly flattened at the poles and covered with white ice, mostly methane ice. Ortiz said. - However, there are indications that it has organic material at least in some areas. This material is usually reddish in color, but the surface of the planet itself is quite dark."

Why Makemake doesn't have an atmosphere is still a mystery, but Ortiz has speculation. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the Sun heats up this volatile material, it immediately turns into gas, which creates the atmosphere. Makemake has no surface nitrogen ice, so there is nothing to form from the atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass and a weaker gravitational field than Pluto. This means that within a few billion years, Makemake has lost all of its nitrogen. Methane ice can also turn into a gas when heated. However, according to Ortiz, due to the fact that the dwarf planet is very far from the Sun, its rays are not able to warm the methane, which is on its surface in a solid state in the form of ice. Even if methane turns into a gas, it will only be enough for 10 percent of the atmosphere.