"The astronomers detected a sudden drop in starlight when Makemake’s occultation began, as if someone had suddenly switched the star to a lower wattage rather than dialing down a stellar dimmer switch. The sharpness of the occultation suggested that the dwarf planet lacks a significant global atmosphere, which would lend a fuzzy edge to its shadow. "If the decrease is abrupt, you see that there is not an atmosphere," says study co-author Noemi Pinilla-Alonso, a postdoctoral planetary scientist at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. By contrast, when Pluto passes in front of a star, "the decrease is gradual, which shows that there is an atmosphere."
Tenth Planet.
Space Last year, the so-called tenth planet discovered in 2005, Makemake made a rare visible appearance and the findings of astronomers were recently published. Don't get too excited. It lacks something:
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