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Haumea : Dwarf Planet

Located in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune’s orbit, the dwarf planet Haumea is an oval-shaped object with a radius of about 385 miles (just under 10 times smaller than Earth), and two moons, Namaka and Hi’iaka. A day on Haumea lasts only four Earth hours, making it one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system.

Originally designated 2003 EL61 (and nicknamed Santa by one discovery team), Haumea resides in the Kuiper belt and is roughly the same size as Pluto. Haumea is one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system. Its fast spin distorts Haumea's shape, making this dwarf planet look like a football.

Discovery
Two teams claim credit for discovering of Haumea citing evidence from observations made in 2003 and 2004. The International Astronomical Union’s Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature lists the discovery location as Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain on Mar. 7, 2003, but no official discoverer is listed.

Haumea was named after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility.

Size and Distance
With a radius of about 385 miles (620 kilometers), Haumea is about 1/14 the radius of Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Haumea would be about as big as a sesame seed.

From an average distance of 4,010,000,000 miles (6,452,000,000 kilometers), Haumea is 43 astronomical units away from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 6 hours to travel from the Sun to Haumea.

Orbit and Rotation
Haumea takes 285 Earth years to make one trip around the Sun. As Haumea orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 4 hours, making it one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system.

It is possible a massive impact billions of years ago set off Haumea's spin and created its moons.

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