On April 26th 2016, astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope released a photo of the dwarf planet Makemake and its tiny moon. The dwarf planet is believed to be the second largest object in the Kuiper Belt, with Pluto being the largest. It was recognized as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in July 2008, after being first discovered in March of 2005.
Makemake has a diameter of 1,434 kilometers and takes 309.9 years to orbit the sun. It's moon, nicknamed MK2 was discovered in a Hubble Wide Field Camera image taken in April of 2015. MK2 has an estimated diameter of 100 miles and orbits Makemake at a distance of 13,000 miles. MK2 was difficult to detect because it appears as 1,300 times fainter than Makemake.
Since the tiny moon appears to be orbiting edge on relative to earth, astronomer Alex Parker from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder CO. said, "That means that often when you look at the system you are going to miss the moon because it gets lost in the glare of Makemake. The discovery of MK2 now gives Makemake more similarities with Pluto as both of them are covered with frozen methane.
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