A dwarf
planet circling the sun out beyond the orbit of Neptune has been rechristened
Makemake after a Polynesian god and designated the third of the solar system's
new class of plutoids, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced
Saturday.
Makemake is a small, red-tinged world that ranks among the largest
objects in the outer solar system. But it is still smaller and dimmer than the already
demoted dwarf planet Pluto, which astronomers reclassified
as a plutoid last month.
Astronomers
discovered
Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh), the fourth
dwarf planet so far, in 2005 and believe its surface is covered by a layer of
frozen methane. It is bright enough to be seen by a high-end amateur telescope,
the IAU said.
"The orbit
is not particularly strange, but the object itself is big," said astronomer
Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., who
led the team that discovered Makemake. "Probably about
two-thirds the size of Pluto."
Pluto,
Makemake and a third object - dubbed Eris - are all classified
as plutoids, as well as dwarf planets. The solar system's largest asteroid
Ceres is also a dwarf planet, but not in the plutoid class because its orbit,
which falls in the belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, is smaller than
that of the more distant Neptune.
Originally
designated 2005 FY9, the object was nicknamed "Easterbunny"
by its discoverers before officially being named Makemake after the Polynesian
creator of humanity and the god of fertility, the IAU said.
"We
consider the naming of objects in the solar system very carefully," said Brown.
Makemake's
methane ice-rich surface, while fascinating, did not easily relate to Earthly
mythology, he added. But the small dwarf planet, like Eris and the object 2003
EL61 also spotted by Brown and his team, was found while his wife was pregnant
with their daughter. It was the discovery of those three objects that led to
Pluto's drop
from full planet to dwarf planet in 2006.
Brown was
researching the mythology of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, in the South Pacific
for prospective names when he learned of the creator and fertility god
Makemake.
"I am
partial to fertility gods," Brown said, recalling the discovery of Makemake,
Eris and 2003 EL61. "I have the distinct memory of feeling this fertile
abundance pouring out of the entire Universe. Makemake was part of that."
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