Makemake : Dwarf Planet

Along with fellow dwarf planets Pluto, Eris and Haumea, Makemake is located in the Kuiper Belt, a region outside the orbit of Neptune. Slightly smaller than Pluto, Makemake is the second-brightest object in the Kuiper Belt as seen from Earth (while Pluto is the brightest). It takes about 305 Earth years for this dwarf planet to make one trip around the sun.

Makemake holds an important place in the history of solar system studies because it—along with Eris—was one of the objects whose discovery prompted the International Astronomical Union to reconsider the definition of a planet and to create the new group of dwarf planets.

Makemake was named after the Rapanui god of fertility.

Discovery
Makemake was discovered Mar. 31, 2005 by M.E. Brown, C.A. Trujillo, and D. Rabinowitz at the Palomar Observatory.

Size and Distance
With a radius of approximately 444 miles (715 kilometers), Makemake is 1/9 the radius of Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Makemake would be about as big as a mustard seed.

From an average distance of 4,253,000,000 miles (6,847,000,000 kilometers), Makemake is 45.8 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 and 20 minutes to travel from the sun to Makemake.

Day : 22.48 hours
Year : 305.34 Earth years
Radius: ~ 444 miles | 715 kilometers
Planet Type : Dwarf
Confirmed Moons : 0
Provisional moons : 1
Source
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