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50 free Makemake trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Makemake trivia quiz covers the fourth-largest dwarf planet in the Solar System, the bright icy world in the Kuiper belt that most people cannot pronounce and fewer can place. The easy questions handle the basics: who found it, where it orbits, roughly how big it is compared with Pluto, and where its unusual name comes from. From there the quiz moves through the discovery scramble of 2005, the Easterbunny nickname, the minor-planet number, and the role Makemake played in getting Pluto demoted. The harder half is for space nerds: the 2011 stellar occultation, the mid-infrared excess, the moon nicknamed MK 2, the frozen methane and tholins on the surface, what the James Webb Space Telescope did and did not find, the proposed cryovolcanic hotspot, and the flyby trajectories that have been sketched for a future probe. If you have done our dwarf planet or solar system quizzes, this is the deep dive on one object. Every answer was checked against Makemake's encyclopaedia entry before publishing, and the numbers quoted are the ones astronomers currently use.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01No probe has visited Makemake. How does it appear even through a large telescope?
A star-like point of light
Its angular diameter is only about 38 milliarcseconds, so no high-resolution image of its surface exists.
Q 02In which region of the Solar System does Makemake orbit?
The Kuiper belt
It is a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune, and Makemake is the largest member of its classical population.
Q 03Makemake's diameter is roughly what fraction of Pluto's?
60%
At about 1,430 km across it is also roughly 11% the diameter of Earth.
Q 04Which astronomer led the team that discovered Makemake?
Michael E. Brown
The same Caltech team also found Eris and Haumea, and Brown later wrote a memoir titled How I Killed Pluto.
Q 05In which year was Makemake discovered?
2005
The discovery images were taken on March 31, but Brown did not spot the object until April 3.
Q 06At which observatory was Makemake discovered?
Palomar
The team used a CCD camera on the 1.22-metre Samuel Oschin telescope in California.
Q 07What nickname did the discovery team give Makemake before it was formally named?
Easterbunny
It was found shortly after Easter; the team's other big finds were nicknamed Santa (Haumea) and Xena (Eris).
Q 08Makemake is named after a creator god from the mythology of which people?
The Rapa Nui of Easter Island
The choice kept the object's link to Easter while satisfying the IAU rule that classical objects in that region take creator-deity names.
Q 09What was Makemake's provisional designation before it was named?
2005 FY9
2003 UB313 became Eris, 2003 EL61 became Haumea and 2007 OR10 became Gonggong.
Q 10What is Makemake's minor-planet catalogue number?
136472
It was assigned by the Minor Planet Center in September 2005 once the orbit was well determined; 134340 is Pluto and 136199 is Eris.
Q 11In which year did the IAU approve the name Makemake?
2008
Brown had toyed with naming it after the goddess Eostre or the trickster rabbit Manabozho before settling on Makemake.
Q 12Which two other large trans-Neptunian objects had Brown's team found in the months before Makemake?
Haumea and Eris
Fear of being scooped by a Spanish team led Brown to rush the announcement of Eris and Makemake in July 2005.
Q 13The announcement of Makemake and its large neighbours helped push the IAU to do what in 2006?
Reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet
The new definition of planet required a body to have cleared its orbital neighbourhood, which Pluto has not.
Q 21What shape did the 2011 stellar occultation reveal Makemake to be?
Slightly flattened at the poles
Its dimensions match a Maclaurin spheroid, a rotating body in hydrostatic equilibrium.
Q 22Makemake's rotation period is uncertain between two values. Which pair?
11.4 or 22.8 hours
Its brightness barely varies (0.03 magnitudes), so astronomers cannot tell whether it peaks once or twice per spin.
Q 23What gives Makemake its reddish-brown tint?
Tholins
Makemake is less red than Pluto but somewhat redder than Eris; the mix forms when radiation breaks down surface ices.
Q 14Roughly how long does Makemake take to orbit the Sun?
307 years
Its moderately elliptical orbit ranges from about 38 AU at perihelion to nearly 53 AU at aphelion.
Q 15What is Makemake's average distance from the Sun, in astronomical units?
45.5 AU
That is about 6.8 billion km; 39.5 AU is Pluto's average distance and 68 AU is Eris's.
Q 16Makemake's orbit is tilted about how far from the ecliptic?
29 degrees
This high inclination kept it out of earlier sky surveys, which is why it was found so late despite being so bright.
Q 17Makemake was the fourth object formally recognised as a dwarf planet. Which were the first three?
Ceres, Pluto and Eris
Makemake was also the first object named under the IAU's new procedures for likely dwarf planets.
Q 18Makemake belongs to which subcategory of dwarf planets, defined by orbiting beyond Neptune?
Plutoids
Ceres, in the asteroid belt, is the only recognised dwarf planet that is not one.
Q 19Makemake ranks where among known dwarf planets by size?
Fourth largest
Pluto, Eris and Haumea are bigger; Makemake's average diameter is around 1,430 km.
Q 20Makemake's mass is roughly what percentage of Pluto's?
20%
Its mass was worked out from the orbital period and distance of its moon; it is only about 3.7% the mass of Earth's Moon.
Q 24With a geometric albedo of about 82%, Makemake is more reflective than which larger dwarf planet?
Pluto
The brightness suggests its surface ice is freshly deposited, covering the darker material beneath.
Q 25Roughly how cold is Makemake's surface?
30 to 40 K
That is around -240 C, cold enough for volatile ices to stay solid.
Q 26Unlike Pluto and Eris, Makemake's surface appears to lack which two ices?
Nitrogen and carbon monoxide
The lighter of the two is volatile enough to escape Makemake's weaker gravity; the other absence is harder to explain.
Q 27Which observatory set the limits showing Makemake has less than 3% nitrogen ice on its surface?
James Webb Space Telescope
With nothing to mix with, Makemake's surface ice can grow into thick slabs of sintered particles.
Q 28Which spacecraft measured Makemake's phase curve while heading out past Pluto?
New Horizons
It looked at Makemake from 52 AU in 2007 and 70 AU in 2017, angles impossible from Earth.
Q 29What is Makemake's bulk density, roughly?
1.76 g/cm3
That is similar to Pluto, Gonggong and Quaoar, and suggests an interior of rock and water ice.
Q 30What does Makemake's unusually low deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in methane suggest?
A warm interior with hydrothermal chemistry
Deuterium-poor gas could form in subsurface water at around 150 °C, heated by the core.