HAUMEA

                                                                             Goddess of fertility

Last updated: 28/05/2019

Haumea is the third closest dwarf planet to the Sun and is beyond the orbit of Neptune. Two teams claim credit for discovering of Haumea citing evidence from observations made in 2003 and 2004. The International Astronomical Union's Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature lists the discovery location as Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain on Mar. 7, 2003, but no official discoverer is listed. It was listed a dwarf planet on September 17th, 2008. Haumea was named after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility. 

Haumea is known for its elongated shape(shaped like a rugby ball) which makes it the least circular dwarf planet in the Solar System. The shape is believed to be the result of its rapid rotation. A day on Haumea would be 3.9 Earth hours. It is one of the fastest rotating objects in the Solar System. For light from the Sun to travel to Earth, it only takes 8 minutes. Because of Haumea's distance, it takes 285 Earth years for Haumea to orbit the Sun once! But for light to travel to Haumea, it would take 6 hours. Haumea also has a ring system which was discovered in 2017. It also has two small Moons called Hi'iaka and Namaka. Both Moons are named after Haumea's children. 

Type- Dwarf Planet

Made of- Rock, thick coating of ice

Temperature- (-241 C)surface

Diameter- 1,632 km

Mass- 4.01 x 10^21

Distance from Sun- (closest) 34.7 AU (most distant) 51.5 AU  (AU means Astronomical Unit)