Universe → Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex → Laniakea Supercluster → Virgo Supercluster → Local Group → Milky Way Galaxy → Orion-Cygnus Arm → Gould Belt → Local Bubble → Local Interstellar Cloud → Solar System → Kuiper belt → Haumea
Haumea is a dwarf planet that resides in our Solar System's Kuiper belt past Neptune. It is considered to be a very unusual object, as it has many qualities that make it stand out from most of the dwarf planets.
For a start, Haumea takes the shape of a tri-axial ellipsoid. Most objects like Haumea that rotate quickly take on the shape of an oblate spheroid (for reference, Saturn or Vega), but Haumea rotates so fast that it distorts even further into a tri-axial ellipsoid.
Haumea also pertains a very large red spot on its surface very rich in minerals, organic compounds and crystalline water ice[1]. The latter, which composes most of Haumea's surface[2], is unusual as Haumea (along with other objects with a similar surface, such as Pluto's moon Charon) is well under the temperature needed to form crystalline water (-163 °C), at -223 °C, where it should be amorphous ice, not to mention the fact that solar radiation would have made crystalline ice unstable. It is currently unknown how Haumea resurfaces its ice.
In 2017, a ring was been discovered around Haumea[3]. This is the first ring system found around a Trans-Neptunian object.
Haumea has two known moons. Their names are Hi'iaka and Namaka.
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Mars
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Neptune
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Minor planet
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Comet Halley |
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Comet Hale-Bopp | ||||||||||||||||