Dwarf Planet Near Pluto Gets a Name

WASHINGTON (July 20) - A dwarf planet orbiting beyond Neptune has been designated the third plutoid in the solar system and given the name Makemake, the International Astronomical Union said on Saturday.

The red methane-covered dwarf planet formerly known as 2005 FY9 or "Easterbunny" is named after a Polynesian creator of humanity and god of fertility.

Amazing Space Images

R. Hurt, JPL-Caltech / NASA

An illustration shows the recently named Makemake, a dwarf planet discovered in 2005 and previously called 2005 FY9. It is slightly smaller than Pluto, and like Pluto, orbits beyond Neptune. Click through the images to see some amazing space photos.

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Just last month the IAU, which names planets and other heavenly bodies, decided to create a new class of sub-planets called plutoids.

Pluto, demoted from planet status, and Eris are the other two plutoids. A fourth dwarf planet named Ceres has been excluded from the plutoid club because it orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Makemake is just slightly smaller and dimmer than Pluto and was discovered in 2005.

"The orbit is not particularly strange, but the object itself is big, probably about two-thirds the size of Pluto," said Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, who discovered and named Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh).

It was the discovery of these trans-Neptunian objects that led the IAU to re-designate just what it meant to be a planet.

Brown said the name came to him when he was looking for a mythological god and thought of the South Pacific's Easter Island. Makemake was the chief god among people who settled the island.

Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Todd Eastham

thats really fascinatting, I always thought it was either charon or ceres I could never remember?

I always thought Charon was a twin planet to pluto and yes I believe ceres is the biggest asteoid in the belt

sorry if this is a stupid question but is it coz of the there isn't a big diffrent of a size of charon and pluto is that the reason ur said it zug or is it because pluto is no longer a planet

Pluto was thought of as a double planet before it stopped being a planet. The reason is the small difference in size between the Pluto and Charon. I have seen the Earth-Moon system referred to as a double planet because the Moon is so much bigger relative to the Earth than other satellites.

do you now how many dwarf planets scientests have named?

I can acknoledge 3:

charon, ceres, UB313...

UB313 being the one farther than pluto and charon

charon being the "twin planet"

and ceres being the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt between mars and Jupitar!

Named Trans-Neptunians: Sedna, Eris (bigger than Pluto), Quaoar, Varuna, Makemake (the newest one) and Orcus.

I believe that it is:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres/Vesta, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris

That's the solar system in order from the sun.

I thought it was: mercury, venus, earth, mars, ceres, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, pluto and charon, UB313, sedna.