Astronomy · Dwarf Planets
Haumea
The fast-spinning, egg-shaped dwarf planet.
- Location
- Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune
- Shape
- Elongated by very fast rotation
- Rings
- Has a ring system
- Moons
- Two known moons
Renerpho · CC BY-SA
Gallery
Haumea occultation lightcurve - Sicardy et al. 2024 Fig 13
One of the light curves showing the presence of a ring around the dwarf planet Haumea during the 21 January 2017 occultation, as observed from the 1m telescope at the Konkoly site (Hungary).
Bruno Sicardy et al. (adapted from Ortiz et al. 2017) · CC BY
A spinning oddity
Haumea is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt with one of the fastest rotations of any large body in the Solar System. Its rapid spin distorts it into an elongated, egg-like shape rather than a sphere.
Rings and moons
Haumea is notable for having a ring — a feature once thought to belong only to the giant planets — as well as two small moons. These suggest a violent past, perhaps a major collision.
A distant, icy world
Far out beyond Neptune, Haumea is cold and icy, with a surface that appears to be coated in bright water ice. It is one of the more unusual members of the dwarf-planet family.
Knowledge connections
How this connects across Asteria Star — scientific, cultural, and astrological links are kept separate.
Scientific connections
- Part ofSolar System
Related
- Member of groupKuiper Belt