Kuiper belt dwarf planet
Makemake
A bright, reddish dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt covered in methane ice, named after the creator god of Rapa Nui.
- Distance from Earth today
- 8.00 billion km53.45 AU · light: 7 h 25 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 7.88 billion km52.65 AU
- As of
- 2 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Rotation period
- 22.8 h
- Semi-major axis
- 45.60 AU (6.82 billion km)
- Perihelion
- 38.40 AU
- Aphelion
- 52.81 AU
- Orbital period
- 308.0 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.158
- Orbital inclination
- 29.0°
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 2005 – Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, David Rabinowitz
Description
Makemake is one of the largest known objects in the Kuiper belt and one of the brightest after Pluto. It was found in 2005 by Michael Brown's team at Palomar Observatory, shortly after Easter, which inspired its name: Makemake is the creator deity of the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Its reddish surface is rich in frozen methane, and observations of a star passing behind it showed no substantial global atmosphere. In 2016 the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a small, dark moon orbiting it. No spacecraft has visited Makemake.