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Credit & Copyright: Bob English
Explanation:
At first called "Easterbunny" by its discovery team,
officially named Makemake is the
second brightest dwarf planet of the
Kuiper belt.
The icy world appears twice in this astronomical
image, based on data taken on June 29 and 30 of the bright
spiral galaxy NGC 4725.
Makemake is marked by short red lines, its position
shifting
across a homemade telescope's field-of-view over two nights along a
distant orbit.
On those dates nearly coincident with the line-of-sight to the
spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Bernices,
Makemake was about 52.5 astronomical units or 7.3 light-hours away.
NGC 4725 is over 100,000 light-years across and
41 million light-years distant.
Makemake is
now known to have at least one moon.
NGC 4725 is
a famous one-armed spiral galaxy.
Look Up!
Perseid Meteor Shower
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: NGC 4725 - dwarf planet
Publications with words: NGC 4725 - dwarf planet
See also: