Today's APOD is an illustration of Makemake from a 21 November ESO press release. The release, outlining an article published in Nature the following day, concerned using an occultation of a star to determine whether the dwarf planet has an atmosphere.
Makemake was discovered in March 2005 and classified by the IAU as a dwarf planet in 2008. It has an estimated albedo of 0.74 to 0.80.
The original European Southern Observatory press release:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1246/
Makemake entry at NASA's Solar System site:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/pro ... a_MakeMake
Makemake
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 6372
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 6372
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Re: Makemake
I still wonder which would have been the best route to take--increase the number on the planet list, or (as we're doing now) increase the categories.
More information:
https://www.princeton.edu/~willman/plan ... /Makemake/
https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau0806/
More information:
https://www.princeton.edu/~willman/plan ... /Makemake/
https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau0806/
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Christopher K.
- Posts: 6372
- Joined: October 12th, 2009, 3:28 pm
- Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Re: Makemake
Makemake is now known to have a moon, the surface of which is ~1300 times dimmer than Makemake’s. As shown by by an illustration from the Southwest Research Institute, the moon’s about 160 kilometer’s in diameter.
31 December 2022 APOD:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221231.html
31 December 2022 APOD:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221231.html