Hubble Just Discovered A New Moon Hiding In Our Solar System

Makemake has a moon!

By Colin Aboy

Updated

This illustration shows Makemake, a plutoid located in a region beyond Neptune that is populated with small Solar System bodies (often referred to as the transneptunian region).  The object was discovered in 2005 by a team from the California Institute of Technology led by Mike Brown, and was previously known as 2005 FY9 (or unofficially "Easterbunny"). Visually, it is the second brightest transneptunian object, following after Pluto. The name Makemake was suggested by Mike Brown, in honour the creator of humanity and the god of fertility in the mythology of the South Pacific island of Rapa Nui or the Easter Island. Makemake was the chief god of the Tangata manu bird-man cult and was worshiped in the form of sea birds, which were his incarnation. His material symbol was a man with a bird's head. Members of the International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN) and the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN) agreed with his proposal. Image: NASA

Makemake, a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper Belt, is recognized as the only distant dwarf planet without a satellite…or so astronomers thought.

Recently, astronomer Alex Parker discovered that the tiny planet actually has a companion, thanks to data from the Hubble Space Telescope. The newly discovered moon is temporarily nicknamed MK2, the friendlier version of S/2015 (136472) 1.

MK2, a faint tiny dot now visible, next its host planet Makemake. Credit: Alex Parker, NASA

MK2’s host planet, Makemake, is the second brightest icy dwarf planet, and experts believe that it’s the reason why the moon has remained invisible, along with the sheer darkness of those parts of the Solar System. The tiny moon is estimated to be 161 km (100 miles) in diameter, orbiting Makemake at around 20,900 km (13,000 miles) away, and is 1,300 times fainter than the planet. In spite of all that, the tiny moon was able to reflect just a bit of light for Hubble to see.

Parker stated that MK2 will give more information about its host planet at greater detail, adding that Pluto’s mass wasn’t even known until astronomers discovered its moon, Charon.