NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake. The new findings reveal a bit more about the second brightest icy dwarf planet, after Pluto, in the Kuiper Belt.
The Kuiper Belt itself is a broad reservoir of leftover frozen material that formed from the construction of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. It is home to several dwarf planets, as well as some of the worlds have known satellites. However, this is the first ever discovery of a companion object to Makemake, which is one of five dwarf planets that the International Astronomical Union currently recognizes.
"Our preliminary estimates show that the moon's orbit seems to be edge-on, and that means that often when you look at the system you are going to miss the moon because it gets lost in the bright glare of Makemake," said Alex Parker of the Southwest Research Institute, who led the image analysis for the observations.
So, how did the researchers find the moon? They used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which allowed them to look for the faint object near Makemake's glare. More specifically, the researchers used the same Hubble technique to see this new moon as they did when they found the small satellites of Pluto.
"Makemake is in the class of rare Pluto-like objects, so finding a companion is important," Parker said. "The discovery of this moon has given us an opportunity to study Makemake in far greater detail than we ever would have been able to without the companion."
Finding the moon actually only increases the parallels between Pluto and Makemake. Both are covered in frozen methane. In addition, further study will reveal the density of Makemake, which may tell scientists if the compositions of Makemake and Pluto are also similar.
The researchers currently hope to make more Hubble observations so they can make accurate measurements to determine if the moon's orbit is elliptical or circular. This will help settle the question of the moon's origin; a tight circular orbit may mean that the moon is probably the result of a collision between Makemake and another Kuiper Belt Object, and if the orbit is elongated, then it's more likely that Makemake captured the moon from the Kuiper Belt with gravity.
The findings reveal a bit more about Makemake. More specifically, they show that this dwarf planet may be more like Pluto than anyone first thought.
If you want to learn more, check out the video below, courtesy of NASA and YouTube.
