Key facts
- Scale fact
- 2,322 kmmaximum extent
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Rock and water ice
Haumea
2,322 kmmaximum extent
Visual creditscaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
Details
Haumea is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt with a noticeably stretched silhouette. Its rapid rotation makes it one of the most unusual large bodies in the outer Solar System, and it also has two moons and a ring. The odd system is likely the aftermath of a major collision early in Haumea’s history.
Haumea rotates once in about four hours, fast enough to stretch the dwarf planet into a markedly elongated shape. It has two moons, a ring detected during a stellar occultation, and a family of smaller objects with similar water-ice spectra. A major ancient collision is the leading way to connect those features, but the exact impact history is reconstructed from models rather than observed directly.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- Haumea on Wikipedia
- Universe journey
- Solar System
Size neighbors
Objects near Haumea on the scale
Sources
References for Haumea
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Haumea — Wikipedia
- Visual: scaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.