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| What astronomical object used to be called Easter Bunny? |
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Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh) is a dwarf planet located in the Kuiper belt. The California Institute of Technology team that made the discovery nicknamed it Easter bunny because it was discovered shortly after Easter on March 31, 2005. They had a difficult time picking out a real name for their discovery. Then Mike Brown, the team’s leader, remembered the island of Rapa Nui (a.k.a. Easter Island). After reading about mythology of the island he came up with Makemake, which is the creator of humanity and a fertility god. This seemed appropriate to Mike since his wife was pregnant with their daughter at the time of the discovery. In July 2008 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) made the name official.  Makemake is a dim reddish brown plutoid. A plutoid is a Pluto like object located beyond Neptune’s orbit. There are only 2 other plutoids – Pluto and Eris. Makemake is believed to be made of methane, ethane, and tholins. It probably gets its color from the tholins. Its average surface temperature is around -243 C (-406 F). Unlike Pluto or Eris it doesn’t have a moon. Makemake is slightly smaller than Pluto. Its size is estimated at 1,500 km diameter where Pluto is about 2390 km in diameter. Comments (0)
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