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原文:
Makemake, second brightest dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt, has a moon. Nicknamed MK2, Makemake’s moon reflects sunlight with a charcoal-dark surface, about 1,300 times fainter than its parent body. Still, it was spotted in Hubble Space Telescope observations intended to search for faint companions with the same technique used to find the small satellites of Pluto. Just as for Pluto and its satellites, further observations of Makemake and orbiting moon will measure the system’s mass and density and allow a broader understanding of the distant worlds. About 160 kilometers (100 miles) across compared to Makemake’s 1,400 kilometer diameter, MK2’s relative size and contrast are shown in this artist’s vision. An imagined scene of an unexplored frontier of the Solar System, it looks back from a spacecraft’s vantage as the dim Sun shines along the Milky Way. Of course, the Sun is over 50 times farther from Makemake than it is from planet Earth.
中文翻譯:
🪐 Makemake（馬卡梅克）係太陽系外圍的一個矮行星，係凱伯帶中第二亮的矮行星，仲有一個月亮。呢個月亮被暱稱為 MK2，佢有一個煤炭般黑暗嘅表面，反射嘅陽光大約只有佢母星的 1,300 倍微弱。透過哈勃太空望遠鏡觀察，MK2 被發現，同時進行的觀測原本係為了尋找微弱的伴星，就如同發現冥王星的衛星一樣。進一步的觀測將對馬卡梅克和佢的衛星進行質量和密度的測量，從而有助於我們更廣泛地理解這些遙遠的世界。
MK2 的直徑約 160 公里（約 100 英里），而馬卡梅克的直徑則為 1,400 公里。兩者的相對大小和對比在這幅藝術家想像的畫作中呈現出來。作品描繪了一幅太陽系未來的未探索前沿場景，似乎從太空船的角度望向，微弱的太陽沿著銀河系閃耀。當然，太陽距離馬卡梅克的距離比距離地球遠超過 50 倍。
#Makemake #MK2 #DwarfPlanet #KuiperBelt #HubbleSpaceTelescope #ExploringTheSolarSystem #SpaceArt #Astronomy #OuterSpace #Galaxy #SpaceObservation #CosmicJourney
來源:NASA每日圖片
