"Makemake is one of the largest and brightest icy worlds beyond Neptune, and its surface is dominated by frozen methane," ...

Webb uncovers methane on Makemake, showing the icy dwarf planet is more active than once thought - just like Pluto.

For years, astronomers believed that Makemake, one of the brightest icy bodies beyond Neptune, was a frozen relic of the ...

A Southwest Research Institute-led team has reported the first detection of gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake, using ...

The methane emission is explained by solar-excited fluorescence. Sunlight interacts with methane molecules, causing them to ...

What can the presence of methane on a dwarf planet that orbits farther out than Pluto teach scientists about the formation ...

Makemake is about 890 miles wide, roughly two-thirds the size of Pluto. Early observations indicated it had almost no atmosphere—essentially just a little air, if any. However, Webb's powerful ...

On a small dwarf planet called Makemake, astronomers have seen signs of surprising temperature changes. These could indicate that the tiny world, which is about 45 times further from the sun than ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An illustration of confirmed dwarf planets and their moons. From left to right: Pluto (with ...

Though no direct evidence of life has been found, models suggest Ceres had hot water shooting into its underground oceans ...

"The profile of the occultation was most consistent with it being a new satellite — a new moon — going around Quaoar." ...

The lead author, Sylvia Protopapa, a chief scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), explained that methane dominates Makemake's frozen surface and is now also found in the gas phase above ...