(136472) Makemake was discovered on 31 March 2005 by Mike Brown (CalTech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory) and David Rabinowitz (Yale University) with the Oschin Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory. The discovery of Makemake was announced on 29 July 2005. On the same day the great Trans Neptune Haumea and Eris were made public. These three items together with Pluto represent, according to current knowledge, the four largest known Kuiper Belt objects.
The diameter of Makemake is between 1430 km and 1500 km (about 60% of the diameter of Pluto). Its apparent brightness is like around 17mag, so it is the second brightest object after Pluto in the Kuiper Belt. In July 2008 he was given the name Makemake after the creator god of the culture of Easter Island.
Makemake is considerably larger than Ceres. Due to its absolute V magnitude of -0.4 mag (and the so estimated size) is seems to be in hydrostatic equilibrium and – its longitudinal axis is 1502 km and the shorter axis 1430 km – is nearly spherical. Following the decision of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in July 2008, he was assigned to the category of dwarf planets and simultaneously because of its orbit to the subcategory of Plutoids.
| Discovery date | 31 March 2005 (M. Brown, C. Trujillo, D. Rabinowitz) |
| Semi-major axis | 6 846 047 324 km = 6.846 x 109 km (45.763 AU) Comparison: 45.763 x Earth |
| Perihelion | 5 790 035 960 km = 5.790 x 109 km (38.704 AU) Comparison: 38.704 x Earth |
| Aphelion | 7 901 909 091 km = 7.901 x 109 km (52.821 AU) Comparison: 52.821 x Earth |
| Diameter | 1502 ±45 km = 1.5 x 103 ±45 km Comparison: 0.1177 x Earth |
| Density | 1.7 ±0.3 g/cm3 Comparison: 0.308 x Earth |
| Sidereal rotation period | 0.953 Earth days 22.48 hours |
| Orbital period (Length of a year) |
309 Earth years 112 785 Earth days |
| Average orbital speed | 15 854 km/h = 4404 m/s Comparison: 0.14785 x Earth |
| Eccentricity | 0.156 Comparison: 9.341 x Earth |
| Inclination | 28.998° |
| Minimum/Maximum surface temperature |
unknown Comparison: The temperature of the earth is ~ 185/331 K |
| Composition of the atmosphere |
unknown Comparison: The atmosphere of the earth is mainly composed of N2 and O2. |
Moons:
Makemake has one known moon with the tentative name S/2015 (136472) 1.