Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Easterbunny is Makemake

Oh, look! Another (dwarf) planet!

Makemake has been declared a dwarf planet today by the IAU.

It used to be called Easterbunny, but I guess that didn't sound respectable enough. Makemake is the creator god from the mythology of the islanders from Rapa Nui (aka Isla de Pascua (aka Easter Island)).

Easterbunny, Easter Island. Cute, huh?

Makemake's orbit is just outside Pluto, and behind Pluto and Eris (ex-Xena) in terms of dwarf-planet size.

Therefore, all you kids be sure to memorize the new list:

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Ceres
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Makemake
Eris

Got it?

2 comments:

Pedicularis said...

But you have intermingled planets and dwarfs! Isn't the new list of planets simply Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune?

Sotosoroto said...

No! You must memorize them all!