                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 December 31

                             Moon over Makemake
     Illustration Credit: Alex H. Parker (Southwest Research Institute)

   Explanation: Makemake (sounds like MAH-kay MAH-kay), second brightest
   dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt, has a moon. Nicknamed MK2, Makemake's
   moon reflects sunlight with a charcoal-dark surface, about 1,300 times
   fainter than its parent body. Still, in 2016 it was spotted in Hubble
   Space Telescope observations intended to search for faint companions
   with the same technique used to find the small satellites of Pluto.
   Just as for Pluto and its satellites, further observations of Makemake
   and orbiting moon will measure the system's mass and density and allow
   a broader understanding of the distant worlds. About 160 kilometers
   (100 miles) across compared to Makemake's 1,400 kilometer diameter,
   MK2's relative size and contrast are shown in this artist's vision. An
   imagined scene of an unexplored frontier of the Solar System, it looks
   back from a spacecraft's vantage as the dim Sun shines along the Milky
   Way. Of course, the Sun is over 50 times farther from Makemake than it
   is from planet Earth.

                      Tomorrow's picture: planet Earth
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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