Makemake
What is Makemake?
Dwarf planets· Diameter 1,430 km. The second-brightest object in the Kuiper belt after Pluto — a reddish world coated in methane ice, nearly airless, with a small moon found in 2016, named for the creator god of Easter Island's Rapa Nui. See it orbiting beyond Pluto in the orbit view.
The orbit of Makemake at this moment: https://nowsky.org/solar/orbit?fw=makemake&sp=120 — replayed live, no login.
Orbit and size
| Diameter | 1,430 km |
|---|---|
| Distance | 38~53 AU |
| Year | 306 yr |
| Note | red methane-ice surface, one moon |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Frequently asked
- How big is Makemake?
- 1,430 km.
- How far is Makemake from Earth?
- 38~53 AU.
- What is notable about Makemake?
- red methane-ice surface, one moon.
The Sun from 52 AU — one bright star
Makemake is now about 52 AU from the Sun, near aphelion. From there the Sun is a point rather than a disk, 2,700 times fainter than from Earth — yet still some 400 times brighter than a full Moon, enough to tell day from night. The surface sits around −240 °C, and whether methane ice sublimates slowly enough at that temperature to leave a trace of atmosphere is the question observers watch.
A 2011 stellar occultation found no atmosphere, but as Makemake approaches perihelion (38 AU) in the 2100s the methane may sublimate and an atmosphere may appear — the same seasonal effect that gives Pluto an atmosphere near its perihelion. The moon MK2, found by Hubble in 2016, is 160 km across with a surface as dark as coal, which is how it stayed hidden so long beside bright Makemake.
The dwarf planet in depth
Makemake was discovered in March 2005 by Michael Brown's team; found just after Easter, it was named for the creator god in the mythology of Easter Island's Rapa Nui people. At 1,430 km across — about 60% of Pluto — it orbits the Sun at an average distance of 45 AU every 306 years, on a path inclined 29 degrees, steep even by Kuiper belt standards.
Its surface is coated in methane and ethane ice, reddened by tholins, organic compounds cooked by sunlight. A 2011 stellar occultation showed it has almost no atmosphere, unlike Pluto, because it lacks nitrogen. In 2016 Hubble found a dark 160-km moon, nicknamed MK2, and in 2024 the James Webb telescope detected heat leaking from beneath the surface, raising the possibility of internal activity.
Follow Makemake in the orbit view to see it tracing a steeply tilted orbit slightly beyond Pluto's. It currently sits near aphelion at about 52 AU and will drift slowly closer to the Sun for more than a century.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.