Tuesday, July 15, 2008
And Then There Were Four
The Dwarf Planet roll call has risen from three to four. 2005FY9, discovered at Palomar Observatory on March 31, 2005, has now officially been named Makemake (MAH-kay MAH-kay). There is an excellent essay on its naming from Mike Brown, one of its discovers, over at his blog Mike Brown's Planets.
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Dwarf planets are planets. The IAU must reverse its ridiculous determination that states otherwise, the sooner the better. These objects are in hydrostatic equilibrium, meaning they have enough self gravity to pull themselves into a round shape. Such objects have geological and geophysical processes just like the "classical planets" and unlike asteroids, which are inert.
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