Haumea

Haumea was discovered on 28th December 2004 by astronomers at Caltech using images taken on 6th May 2004. Haumea is 7.5 billion kilometres (4.6 billion miles) from the Sun and takes 285 years to complete each orbit.

The name Haumea (pronounced /haʊˈmeɪə/ in English or [hɐuˈmɛja] in Hawaiian) comes from Haumea, the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth and fertility. In mythology Haumea took many forms and experienced several rebirths, and her children sprang from different parts of her body. As the goddess of the earth, she represents the element of stone.

Before Haumea was officially named by the International Astronomical Union on 17th September 2008 it was nicknamed Santa. The first announcement about the existence of Haumea was made by J L Ortiz’s team at Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía at Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain on 27th July 2005, though this is disputed as the original discovery because it is believed the team used public observational data obtained from the Caltech team.

Haumea has an elongated shape with a diameter of approximately 1500 kilometres, making it roughly one eighth the diameter of Earth and one half the diameter of the Moon. Haumea is classified as a classical trans-Neptunian object with an orbit common for large cubewanos because the perihelion is close to 35 AU and significantly inclined. Haumea has an eliptical orbit between 35AU and 51AU. Each astronomical unit (AU) is a unit of length approximately equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun. It takes 7 hours for light from the Sun to reach Haumea.

Haumea has two moons, Hi‘iaka and Namaka, nicknamed Rudolph and Blitzen.

Haumea’s provisional designation in astronomy is 2003 EL₆₁.

Image Credits

Artist's impression of Haumea based on Image of Mimas PIA08172, artist's impression of Namaka based on Image of 1989N1 PIA00062, artist's impression of Hi‘iaka based on Image of Janus PIA10455, all courtesy of NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. sse.jpl.nasa.gov

Image of The Far Side of The Moon PIA00225 courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech. www.jpl.nasa.gov

Image of Earth AS17-148-22730 courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. eol.jsc.nasa.gov

Text Credits

Haumea en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haumea_(dwarf_planet)

Useful Links

Quaoar www.quaoar.co.uk / Haumea www.haumea.co.uk / Hi‘iaka www.hiiaka.co.uk / Namaka www.namaka.co.uk / Bienor www.bienor.co.uk