We conclude with a discussion of the properties of dwarf planet satellites. Gray arrows illustrate the JWST MIRI 10,000 s 10σ detection limits for 12.8, 15, 18, 21, and 25.5 μm filters. The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a leading scientific society promoting physics and bringing physicists together for the benefit of all. Makemake is very, very cold. While Brown (2013) argued that the lack of a satellite for Makemake suggested that it had escaped a past giant impact, the discovery of S/2015 (136472) 1 suggests that unless it resulted from the capture of a previously unbound TNO, it too was subjected to a giant impact and its density will likely reflect that (Stewart & Leinhardt 2012; Barr & Schwamb 2016). Although the majority of it is covered by nitrogen and methane ices, where the albedo ranges from 78 to 90%, there are small patches of dark terrain whose albedo is only 2 to 12%, and that make up 3 to 7% of the surface. If the dark moon hypothesis is correct, then edge-on rotation for Makemake is not at odds with its low-amplitude light curve, and a low-amplitude light curve in this configuration also implies a rotationally symmetric, close-to-equilibrium figure. Light takes 7 hours, 24 minutes and 46.2235 seconds to travel from Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake and arrive to us. Its membership of about 7,000 individuals also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research and educational interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects comprising contemporary astronomy. This configuration would place Makemake and its satellite near a mutual event season. Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. (2016) highlight that JWST could characterize the anomalous thermal excess of Makemake in detail. Ecliptic north is up; ecliptic east is left. It likely evaded detection in previous satellite searches due to a nearly edge-on orbital configuration, placing it deep within the glare of Makemake during a substantial fraction of its orbital period. [25] Makemake's extremely low average temperature, about 40 K (−230 °C), means its surface is covered with methane, ethane, and possibly nitrogen ices. We find that sources up to 2.5 mag fainter than the visit 1 source are reliably recovered at large separations from Makemake, and sources one magnitude fainter are visible in all regions but the saturated core of Makemake (illustrated by the masked region in Figure 2). Submit your event today, Testing Brain Stimulation In Zero Gravity, Smallsat View Of Tianwen-1 On Its Way To Mars, NASA Worm Logos Painted On SLS Solid Rocket Boosters, A Second Alignment Plane Of Our Solar System Has Been Discovered, Planet Collision Simulations Give Clues To Atmospheric Loss From Moon's Origin, Astronomers Find The First Galaxy Whose Ultraviolet Luminosity Is Comparable To That Of A Quasar, Close Binary Trans-Neptunian Object Discovered. Makemake[18] (minor-planet designation 136472 Makemake) is a likely dwarf planet and perhaps the second largest Kuiper belt object in the classical population,[a] with a diameter approximately two-thirds that of Pluto. 2010) and Spitzer (Stansberry et al. For each of the six frames in which S/2015 (136472) 1 is visible, we subtracted a co-registered median stack of the six frames in which it was not visible. It has a worldwide membership of around 50 000 comprising physicists from all sectors, as well as those with an interest in physics. In five of these six difference images, we performed small-aperture photometry to measure the flux from S/2015 (136472) 1; in the sixth, a cosmic ray impinged too close to S/2015 (136472) 1.