Episode 3328
Makemake
Mon, 2026-Jun-15 01:04 UTC
Length - 2:38
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
The featured article for Monday, 15 June 2026, is Makemake.
Makemake (minor-planet number 136472) is a dwarf planet orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. It has a diameter 60% that of Pluto, making it the fourth largest trans-Neptunian object and the largest member of the Solar System's classical Kuiper belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit. It was discovered on March 31, 2005 by American astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz at Palomar Observatory. As one of the largest objects found by this team, the discovery of Makemake contributed to the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Makemake is similar to Pluto with respect to its surface: it is highly reflective, covered largely by frozen methane, and stained reddish-brown by tholins. Makemake has one known moon, which has not been named. The orbit of this moon suggests that Makemake's rotation has a high axial tilt, which implies that it experiences extreme seasons. Makemake shows evidence of geochemical activity and cryovolcanism, which has led scientists to suspect that it might harbor a subsurface ocean of liquid water. Gaseous methane has been found on Makemake, although it is unclear whether it is contained in an atmosphere or comes from temporary outgassing.
No high-resolution images of Makemake's surface exist because it has not been visited up close by a space probe. Makemake is so far from Earth that it appears as a star-like point of light even when viewed through a telescope. Scientists have expressed desire to send a space probe to explore Makemake because of its geological activity and potential subsurface ocean.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:04 UTC on Monday, 15 June 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see Makemake on Wikipedia.
This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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Until next time, I'm neural Aria.
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