Astronomers Find Dwarf Planet Makemake Lacks Significant Atmosphere

Posted on November 28, 2012

A new study has determined that there is not a significant atmosphere surrounding Makemake, a Dwarf planet located beyond Pluto. Makemake is about two thirds the size of Pluto. Makemake has no known moons. An artist's concept of Makemake's surface is pictured above. You can see a larger version of the image here.

A research team led by Jose Luis Ortiz (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC, Spain) used three telescopes at ESO's La Silla and Paranal observing sites in Chile to observe Makemake as it passed in front of the faint star NOMAD 1181-0235723. A research paper about the finding was published here in Nature.

Ortiz said in a statement, "As Makemake passed in front of the star and blocked it out, the star disappeared and reappeared very abruptly, rather than fading and brightening gradually. This means that the little dwarf planet has no significant atmosphere. It was thought that Makemake had a good chance of having developed an atmosphere -- that it has no sign of one at all shows just how much we have yet to learn about these mysterious bodies. Finding out about Makemake's properties for the first time is a big step forward in our study of the select club of icy dwarf planets."

The team of astronomers also determined Makemake's albedo, which is a measure of how much of the Sun's light Makemake's surface reflects. The albedo came in at 0.77, which is higher than Pluto but lower than Eris, another dwarf plant in our solar system.



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