Distant Dwarf Planet Makemake Is Not as Lonely as First Thought

The dwarf planet Makemake is not as lonely as first thought. Under the constant stare of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a dark moon has been spotted orbiting Makemake, which is the second-brightest object in the distant Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune.

The moon, temporarily named S/2015 (136472) 1 (nicknamed MK 2) and is only 100 miles (160 kilometers) in diameter, has evaded detection for over a decade by hiding in the glare of its parent planet. The new-found satellite is the first to be spotted around Makemake, and is 1,300 times fainter than the dwarf planet.

MK 2 is around 13,000 miles from the dwarf planet, and was spotted after scientists aimed the Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 at Makemake for over two hours in April 2015. During this time they discovered a faint point of light moving through the sky along with the icy world.

The Kuiper Belt is home to several dwarf planets, and has a massive amount of leftover frozen material from the construction of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Some of these planets are known to have satellites; however it’s the first discovery of a companion object to Makemake.

Makemake orbits the sun once every 310 Earth-years, and is one of five dwarf planets that is recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Astronomers where able to pick out the moon from Makemake’s glare by using Hubble’s sharp resolution and its exceptional ability to see faint objects near bright ones.

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