Hubble Discovers Moon Orbiting the Dwarf Planet Makemake
stsci_2016-18b April 26th, 2016
Credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Parker and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), W. Grundy (Lowell Observatory), and K. Noll (NASA GSFC)
Makemake is one of several dwarf planets that reside in the frigid outer realm of our solar system called the Kuiper Belt, a "junkyard" of countless icy bodies left over from our solar system's formation.
After discovering Makemake in 2005, astronomers had searched several times for a companion orbiting the icy world. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a tiny moon around Makemake that is estimated to be 100 miles wide. Nicknamed MK 2, the moon is more than 1,300 times fainter than Makemake, which is 870 miles across. MK 2 is 13,000 miles away from the dwarf planet.
Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute
Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2016/news-2016-18
Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA
Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 2016-18b
- Subject Category
- A.2.1
- Subject Name
- Makemake
- Credits
- Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Parker and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute), W. Grundy (Lowell Observatory), and K. Noll (NASA GSFC)
- Release Date
- 2016-04-26T00:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2016/news-2016-18
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Hubble
- Instrument
- WFC3/UVIS
- Color Assignment
- Grayscale
- Band
- Optical
- Bandpass
- Central Wavelength
- 350
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- Reference Value
- 192.4125000, 26.3700000
- Reference Dimension
- Reference Pixel
- Scale
- Rotation
- Coordinate System Projection:
- Quality
- Position
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- STScI
- URL
- http://hubblesite.org
- Name
- Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
- outreach@stsci.edu
- Telephone
- 410-338-4444
- Address
- 3700 San Martin Drive
- City
- Baltimore
- State/Province
- MD
- Postal Code
- 21218
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://hubblesite.org/copyright/
- Publisher
- STScI
- Publisher ID
- stsci
- Resource ID
- STSCI-H-p1618b-f-600x600.tif
- Resource URL
- https://mast.stsci.edu/api/latest/Download/file?uri=mast:OPO/product/STSCI-H-p1618b-f-600x600.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2021-12-13T17:30:14-05:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
