Quick: name the three largest known objects in the Kuiper
belt. If you’ve been paying close attention you will instantly get Eris and
Pluto, and, if pressed, you will admit that no one knows which one is bigger. And
the third? An unscientific poll of people who should know the answer (my
daughter, my wife, my nephew) reveals that not a single one does.
The answer, of course, is Makemake (you remember how to pronounce this, right? Mah-kay-mah-kay, Polynesian style). Makemake was discovered just months after the
discoveries of Eris and of Haumea, and all were announced within days of each
other. Eris and Haumea had important stories immediately attached to them (Eris
was as big as Pluto! Haumea had suspicious discovery circumstances!), so poor
Makemake stayed in the shadow of its more famous contemporaries. It was so
overlooked that, in the hastily called press conference in which we announced
the discoveries, I couldn’t even remember the official designation of Makemake
when asked (it was 2005 FY9, of course; how could I have forgotten that?).
