Makemake

Makemake: A Shining World Far Away

Makemake is a special kind of world called a dwarf planet. It lives in a faraway place called the Kuiper belt, which is a ring of icy objects beyond the planet Neptune. Makemake is one of the biggest objects there and is the fourth largest known object that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune.

Makemake was discovered in 2005 by astronomers Michael E. ("Mike") Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory. They were looking for big objects beyond Neptune and found Makemake in pictures taken with a special camera on a telescope.

Makemake looks a bit like another dwarf planet called Pluto. Its surface is shiny and covered mostly by frozen methane, which gives it a reddish-brown color. Scientists think Makemake might have a hidden ocean of water under its surface because it shows signs of activity. It also has one known moon that has not been named yet.

Because Makemake is very far from Earth, we cannot get close-up pictures of its surface. It looks like just a bright dot even through strong telescopes. Scientists would like to send a space probe to Makemake to learn more about it. They are excited to find out more about this shining world in the distant Kuiper belt.