Discovery of Makemake
Descubrimiento de Makemake
- Date
- 2005 · confidence high
- Place
- Palomar Observatory, California, United States
- Credited to
- Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, David Rabinowitz
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz team found this icy dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt through photographic sky surveys with the Samuel Oschin telescope, in the same campaign that led to the discovery of Eris.
The discovery was announced together with that of Eris on 29 July 2005, although the images of Makemake date from 31 March of that year.
What it led to
- Reinforced the need to formally define 'planet'
- Confirmation that the Kuiper belt holds several dwarf-planet-sized worlds
- New object of study for telescopes and future missions