Astronomy

Pluto and Eris now have a new counterpart. On July 11, 2008, the IAU/USGS Working Group on Planetary Nomenclature included Makemake (136472 Makemake) in the plutoid class, makes it officially both a dwarf planet and a plutoid, alongside the two previously known objects.

Discovered on March 31, 2005 by the team led by Michael Brown, the discovery was announced on July 29, 2005 on the same day as Eris. Previously known as “Easterbuny” (because of the discovery time shortly after Easter), the name “Makemake” (pronounced ma kay ma kay) stands for the creator of humanity in the mythos of the people of Easter Island. The name was chosen in part to preserve the object’s connection with Easter.

With opposition apparent magnitude of 16.7, Makemake is currently visually the second brightest Kuiper belt object after Pluto. This is bright enough to be visible using a high-end amateur telescope. The size of Makemake is not precisely known, but the detection in infrared by the Spitzer space telescope, combined with the similarities of spectrum with Pluto yielded an estimate of a 1,500 (+400/-200) km diameter, makes it the third largest known Trans-Neptunian object after Eris and Pluto.

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