Meet Makemake: The Latest Little Plutoid

While I think that Makemake is easier for kids to remember than minor planet 136472 it’s going to be rough on science students trying to keep track of all of these plutoids — although as an astronomy fanboy I think these are good problems to have:

Fourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian God

“A dwarf planet circling the sun out beyond the orbit of Neptune has been rechristened Makemake after a Polynesian god and designated the third of the solar system’s new class of plutoids, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced Saturday. Makemake is a small, red-tinged world that ranks among the largest objects in the outer solar system. But it is still smaller and dimmer than the already demoted dwarf planet Pluto, which astronomers reclassified as a plutoid last month.”

Below: It sucks to be Pluto which is now reduced to being one of eight trans-Neptunian objects.