Pluto's Bald Cousin

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SPACE SCOOP NEWS FROM ACROSS THE UNIVERSE Nov.Pluto’s 21, 2012 Bald Cousin Makemake, a dwarf planet in our Solar System, appears to have no atmosphere; it is bald! This means it’s not able to hold on to the few sunrays it receives at its distant location, which is even farther away from the Sun than its cousin, Pluto. Until a few years ago, Pluto was considered to be the most distant planet in our Solar System, until it was downgraded to a dwarf planet like Makemake. Dwarf planets are basically too small to be labelled as planets, but they still are spherical objects – like planets – and bigger than asteroids. We know very little about our closer dwarf planets, and knew practically nothing about Makemake. To study this remote object, astronomers had to wait for it to move in front of a star. So they waited. And after a while, their patience was rewarded. If there was an atmosphere around Makemake, the star would have slowly faded away as the dwarf planet blocked it. Like the sunset on Earth, when the star at the centre of our Solar System — the Sun — gradually dims as it disappears below the horizon. But with Makemake, the background star suddenly disappeared and reappeared again after one minute, with no gradual dimming. This tells us that Makemake lacks an atmosphere and it must be colder than we expected, even colder the North Pole in winter! Learn more about how an atmosphere can aﬀect what a planet's alien inhabitants might look like:Design your alien! COOL FACT! Besides Makemake there are four other known dwarf planets in our Solar System: Pluto, Ceres, Haumea and Eris. www.space-awareness.org/scoops .

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CHORUS: Let's Go Meet the Dwarf Planets There Are Five in Our Solar
Meet the Dwarf Planet Lyrics: CHORUS: Let’s go meet the dwarf planets There are five in our solar system Let’s go meet the dwarf planets Now I’ll go ahead and list them I’ll name them again in case you missed one There’s Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea They haven’t broken free from all the space debris There’s Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea They’re smaller than Earth’s moon and they like to roam free I’m the famous Pluto – as many of you know My orbit’s on a different path in the shape of an oval I used to be planet number 9, But I break the rules; I’m one of a kind I take my time orbiting the sun It’s a long, long trip, but I’m having fun! Five moons keep me company On our epic journey Charon’s the biggest, and then there’s Nix Kerberos, Hydra and the last one’s Styx 248 years we travel out Beyond the other planet’s regular rout We hang out in the Kuiper Belt Where the ice debris will never melt CHORUS My name is Ceres, and I’m closest to the sun They found me in the Asteroid Belt in 1801 I’m the only known dwarf planet between Jupiter and Mars They thought I was an asteroid, but I’m too round and large! I’m Eris the biggest dwarf planet, and the slowest one… It takes me 557 years to travel around the sun I have one moon, Dysnomia, to orbit along with me We go way out past the Kuiper Belt, there’s so much more to see! CHORUS My name is Makemake, and everyone thought I was alone But my tiny moon, MK2, has been with me all along It takes 310 years for us to orbit ‘round the sun But out here in the Kuiper Belt… our adventures just begun Hello my name’s Haumea, I’m not round shaped like my friends I rotate fast, every 4 hours, which stretched out both my ends! Namaka and Hi’iaka are my moons, I have just 2 And we live way out past Neptune in the Kuiper Belt it’s true! CHORUS Now you’ve met the dwarf planets, there are 5 of them it’s true But the Solar System is a great big place, with more exploring left to do Keep watching the skies above us with a telescope you look through Because the next person to discover one… could be me or you… .
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