The Frozen Methane Plains and Red Crust of Dwarf Planet Makemake
Deep in the cold outer reaches of the solar system, far beyond the gravitational dominance of the gas giants, lies 136472 Makemake, a frozen world of remarkable chemical composition and extreme thermal conditions. Discovered in 2005, this distant plutoid represents one of the largest known bodies in the Kuiper Belt, second in brightness only to Pluto when viewed from Earth. Clad in a highly reflective shroud of volatile methane and ethane ices, Makemake exists in a state of near-permanent cryogenic stasis, orbiting at an average distance of over forty-five times that of Earth from the Sun. Its physical characteristics offer planetary scientists an invaluable window into the primordial chemistry of the outer solar nebula, preserving volatile organic compounds that have remained largely unaltered since the formation of the solar system. Orbital Dynamics and...