Makemake has a moon |
Makemake has a moon |
Apr 26 2016, 05:51 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 241 Joined: 16-May 06 From: Geneva, Switzerland Member No.: 773 |
Good news :
Hubble discovers moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/r...016/18/image/a/ So Makemake, like his brothers in the outer solar system, has also at least one moon "The moon, nicknamed MK 2, is roughly 100 miles wide and orbits about 13,000 miles from Makemake." Regards, Marc. |
|
|
Apr 26 2016, 09:08 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 495 Joined: 12-February 12 Member No.: 6336 |
While Makemake comes with a very reflective surface, probably methane snow, it was quite an achievement to find this moon since it happen to have one
odd property being very dark. Measurements in the infrared revealed that there might be comparatively warmer patches on Makemake, but now it has turned out it was this satellite that moved in front of Makemake, it currently orbits nearly edge on from our viewpoint, and gave the impression of the existence of such areas. A nice summary is found on Sciencedaily. |
|
|
Apr 27 2016, 05:28 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
discovery paper is out on arXiv:
Discovery of a Makemakean Moon QUOTE We describe the discovery of a satellite in orbit about the dwarf planet (136472) Makemake. This satellite, provisionally designated S/2015 (136472) 1, was detected in imaging data collected with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 on UTC April 27, 2015 at 7.80±0.04 magnitudes fainter than Makemake. It likely evaded detection in previous satellite searches due to a nearly edge-on orbital configuration, placing it deep within the glare of Makemake during a substantial fraction of its orbital period. This configuration would place Makemake and its satellite near a mutual event season. Insufficient orbital motion was detected to make a detailed characterization of its orbital properties, prohibiting a measurement of the system mass with the discovery data alone. Preliminary analysis indicates that if the orbit is circular, its orbital period must be longer than 12.4 days, and must have a semi-major axis ≳21,000 km. We find that the properties of Makemake's moon suggest that the majority of the dark material detected in the system by thermal observations may not reside on the surface of Makemake, but may instead be attributable to S/2015 (136472) 1 having a uniform dark surface. This "dark moon hypothesis" can be directly tested with future JWST observations. We discuss the implications of this discovery for the spin state, figure, and thermal properties of Makemake and the apparent ubiquity of trans-Neptunian dwarf planet satellites.
|
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 2nd May 2024 - 11:34 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |