Haumea – The Football Shaped Dwarf Planet!

Other Interesting Fun Facts About Haumea!

• When Haumea was discovered, it was the 5^th dwarf planet after Pluto, Eris, Ceres and Makemake to be found and is the 3^rd closest to the Sun.
• Haumea has a radius that is about half of Pluto’s with 1/3^rd the mass.
• Haumea is a plutoid (a dwarf planet orbiting outside of Neptune) which is classed as a dwarf planet and orbits in the icy Kuiper Belt.
• It is the largest member of the Haumea collisional group which likely formed billions of years ago after an impact involving Haumea.
• The massive impact also likely resulted in the formation of Haumea’s two moons and its rapid rotation.
• Haumea rotates faster than any other (object over 100km) in the solar system, so fast that it has resulted in it stretching into the shape of a football. If it rotated much faster it would likely split itself in two! Crazy!
• If Haumea didn’t rotate so fast, due to its gravity it would likely settle into a sphere like the other dwarf planets.
• The dwarf planet is believed to be comprised of mostly rocky material with a surface layer of water ice.
• In 2009, scientist discovered that Haumea had a large red spot on one side of its bright white surface which may represent an impact feature and possibly a mineral or organic compound rich area. The reddish colour could be the remains of the impactor or internal minerals of Haumea itself, closer exploration is required to determine its origin.
• If humans were to send a spacecraft for an exploratory flyby it has been calculated that the journey to this Kuiper belt object would take at least 14 years, even with a Jupiter gravity assist. More powerful and lighter space probes are required if we’d want to reduce the travel times to these distant objects.