I'm still pissed that Pluto was demoted.

Speaking of Pluto, wasn't the reason for hurrying the New Horizons probe there because we wanted a flyby before the atmosphere condenses and falls to the surface as its orbit carries it further from the Sun? Given that, why would we think Makemake would throw an atmosphere, since it's further away than Pluto ever is?

Also, I think I ate some Makemake in Hawaii, it was pretty tasty. (yes, bad joke).

Don't worry about Pluto being "demoted". It's still a planet; it's just that there are now two sub-categories, major planet and dwarf planet.
Pluto, if discovered today instead of in 1930, would not have made the "A list". It's simply one of the largest and nearest of the Kuiper Belt Objects.

@Keith. Whahaha. Good one. Of course they can never say that because they would hurt the poor, christians, jews, muslims, hindu etc feelings. But these religions will all die out one day. Christianity is already greatly declining. But lets not surpass any stories dealing with sharing and love and peace. They can be found as well in every religion. Existing and extinct. Not just in old religious stories but everywhere really. They combined with honest quest to learn about nature (mostly throug science) will help humanity move forward in an honest, peacefull, caring way.

"Makemake is the creator of humanity and god of fertility in the myths of the native people of Easter Island."

Christians and Jews also have such myths, but would phys.org dare to use the word "myth" to describe their sacred truths?


That is left *sunglasses* as an exercise for the reader.

Don't worry about Pluto being "demoted". It's still a planet; it's just that there are now two sub-categories, major planet and dwarf planet.


There are three categories, I believe - Terrestrial, Jovian and Dwarf planets. Pluto is neither a terrestrial planet (i.e. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) or a Jovian planet (i.e. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), and so it was placed in the Dwarf category, alongside Ceres, Eris, MakeMake, Quoaor and a few others. Pluto is also part of the Kuiper Belt, as there are others like it in the outer solar system.