Discoveries by Michael E. Brown

dwarf planet in the Solar System

Makemake (minor-planet designation: 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a disk of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the fourth largest trans-Neptunian object and the largest member of the classical Kuiper belt, having a diameter 60% that of Pluto. It was discovered on March 31, 2005 by American astronomers Michael E. ("Mike") Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz at Palomar Observatory. As one of the largest objects found by this team, the discovery of Makemake contributed to the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Haumea (minor-planet designation: 136108 Haumea) is a dwarf planet located beyond Neptune's orbit. It was discovered in 2004 by a team headed by Mike Brown of Caltech at the Palomar Observatory, and formally announced in 2005 by a team headed by José Luis Ortiz Moreno at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain, who had discovered it that year in precovery images taken by the team in 2003. From that announcement, it received the provisional designation .

dwarf planet in the outermost Solar system

Quaoar (minor-planet designation: 50000 Quaoar) is a ringed dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a band of icy planetesimals beyond Neptune. It has a slightly ellipsoidal shape with an average diameter of , about half the size of the dwarf planet Pluto. The object was discovered by American astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at Palomar Observatory on 4 June 2002. Quaoar has a reddish surface made of crystalline water ice, tholins, and traces of frozen methane.

moon of the dwarf planet Eris

dwarf planet in kuiper belt

dwarf planet in the Solar system

American planetary astronomer

natural satellite of the dwarf planet Haumea

moon of Haumea

trans-Neptunian object

natural satellite orbiting 90482 Orcus

Weywot (formal designation (50000) Quaoar I) is the only confirmed moon of the trans-Neptunian dwarf planet Quaoar. It was discovered by Michael Brown and Terry-Ann Suer using images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on 14 February 2006. It is named after the Tongva sky god and son of Quaoar. Weywot is about in diameter and orbits Quaoar every 12.4 days at an average distance of . Weywot is thought to play a role in maintaining Quaoar's outer ring by gravitationally influencing it in an orbital resonance.

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object binary system

trans-Neptunian object

moon of asteroid Kalliope

trans-Neptunian object

moon of asteroid 87 Sylvia

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

minor planet

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

trans-neptunian object

trans-neptunian object

asteroid

Trans-Neptunian object

Trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

trans-Neptunian object

moon of 55637 Uni