A team of NASA astronomers has discovered that one of the five dwarf planets in our solar system, Makemake, has a small moon , which orbits the planet.
Makemake, discovered in 2005 by the Spitzer telescope, is an icy dwarf planet about 1,400 kilometers in diameter that orbits the sun well beyond Pluto, at the edge of the solar system; in the icy region known as the Kuiper Belt. Now, thanks to data from the Hubble space telescope, they have identified a small moon orbiting this small planet, which they have provisionally named S / 2015 (136472) or MK 2.
The tiny satellite is barely 100 miles in diameter , is as dark as coal, and its orbit is located from a point where its brightness (1,300 times fainter than Makemake’s) is dwarfed by that of its planet; hence the difficulty in their identification.
Experts are not clear about the shape of its orbit but it is apparently circular. It orbits Makemake (named after the Easter Island’s god of Creation) at a distance of at least 13,000 miles and takes 12 days to complete.
Future analyzes of its orbit will help astronomers determine the mass of the Makemake / MK 2 system and provide a better understanding of the history of this cosmic couple. If the orbit is elongated, it might suggest that MK 2 was gravitationally captured by Makemake long after the two formed in separate regions of space, while if the orbit is circular, it would reinforce the idea that the two formed together.
