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Study lead author Sylvia Protopapa is a principal scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cMakemake is one of the largest and brightest icy worlds beyond Neptune, and its surface is dominated by frozen methane,\u201d said Protopapa. \u201cMethane is also present in the gas phase above the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n The findings show that Makemake is not an inactive remnant of the outer solar system, but a dynamic body where methane ice is still evolving.<\/p>\n Methane seen in new light<\/p>\n At roughly 890 miles across \u2013 about two-thirds the size of Pluto<\/a> \u2013 Makemake was long thought to lack a substantial global atmosphere. <\/p>\n Stellar occultations (brief events when the dwarf planet passes in front of a star) pointed to no more than a wisp of air.<\/p>\n Webb\u2019s infrared spectra now add an important twist: the team sees methane in emission, excited by sunlight and re-emitted as a faint glow known as fluorescence.<\/p>\n That signal is key. Rather than seeing methane by the light it blocks \u2013 as in traditional transmission measurements \u2013 Webb picked up methane molecules that absorbed sunlight. <\/p>\n The molecules then re-radiated it at characteristic wavelengths. In the frigid outer solar system, that kind of fluorescent \u201cwhisper\u201d is subtle \u2013 and squarely in Webb\u2019s wheelhouse.<\/p>\n A thin, Pluto-like atmosphere<\/p>\n What\u2019s producing the methane glow? The data allow for two very different, but physically reasonable, scenarios.<\/p>\n One possibility is a wisp-thin, Pluto-like atmosphere in equilibrium with surface ices. As seasonal sunlight warms bright methane frost, a trickle of gas sublimates into the sky, drifting until cold patches on the surface refreeze it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis discovery raises the possibility that Makemake has a very tenuous atmosphere sustained by methane sublimation,\u201d said Emmanuel Lellouch of the Paris Observatory<\/a>.<\/p>\n Models point to gas temperatures around 40 Kelvin (\u2013233 \u00b0C\/\u2013387 \u00b0F) and surface pressures of about 10 picobars \u2013 roughly 100 billion times lower than Earth\u2019s sea-level pressure, and a million times more tenuous than Pluto\u2019s.<\/p>\n Explosive plumes from below<\/p>\n The other option is more dramatic: localized outgassing. \u201cAnother possibility is that the methane is being released in plume-like outbursts,\u201d Protopapa noted.<\/p>\n In this picture, methane vents from hot spots or fractures at a rate of a few hundred kilograms per second \u2013 comparable to the water-rich plumes at Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus<\/a> and far more vigorous than the faint vapor seen at Ceres.<\/p>\n Such activity would dovetail with earlier hints from thermal observations that some patches on Makemake\u2019s surface are warmer or texturally unusual, potentially due to fresh deposits, rough terrain, or buried heat sources.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the temptation to link Makemake\u2019s various spectral and thermal anomalies is strong, establishing the mechanism driving the volatile activity remains a necessary step toward interpreting these observations within a unified framework,\u201d said Ian Wong from the Space Telescope Science Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFuture Webb observations at higher spectral resolution will help determine whether the methane arises from a thin bound atmosphere or from plume-like outgassing.\u201d<\/p>\n Methane cycles reshape Makemake<\/p>\n Whichever source proves correct, methane gas on Makemake is very significant. <\/p>\n It suggests that surface-atmosphere exchanges \u2013 processes that cycle ices into vapor and back again \u2013 are still active today far beyond Neptune<\/a>. Pluto has been the standout example, but Makemake now looks poised to join it.<\/p>\n The research also tightens the link between chemistry and climate on distant dwarf planets. <\/p>\n Methane ice can brighten or darken surfaces depending on grain size and mixing. It can also alter thermal behavior. And when it vaporizes, it transports heat and material from one region to another.<\/p>\n Even a vanishingly thin atmosphere can smear frost from sunlit areas to shadowed ones, slowly repainting a world over seasonal timescales. <\/p>\n If plumes are involved, they could dust the surface with fresh, fine-grained frost, refresh colors, and even build subtle landforms.<\/p>\n A complex dwarf planet revealed<\/p>\n Makemake\u2019s story has always hinted at complexity. Discovered in 2005 and notable for its high albedo and reddish tint (likely due to radiation-processed organics called tholins), it later surprised astronomers with the discovery of a small, dark moon.<\/p>\n Occultations suggested no thick blanket of air, yet infrared data \u2013 including Webb\u2019s \u2013 have pointed to puzzling thermal anomalies and unusual characteristics of its methane ice. <\/p>\n The new methane<\/a> fluorescence doesn\u2019t settle every debate, but it provides a missing piece: gas is present, at least sometimes.<\/p>\n Webb detected the methane using its ultra-sensitive infrared spectrograph. It was able to tease out faint signatures of the gas against the dim, icy backdrop nearly 40\u201350 astronomical units from the Sun.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s ability to detect fluorescence highlights both the telescope\u2019s power and the lofting of methane molecules above the surface.<\/p>\n To pin down the source, higher-resolution spectra will be crucial. If Makemake hosts a bound atmosphere, Webb can look for telltale line shapes and ratios that betray gas temperature and pressure, and perhaps the presence (or absence) of other volatiles like nitrogen or carbon monoxide.<\/p>\n If plumes are the source, repeated observations might catch variability \u2013 brief brightenings as vents turn on, or regional differences tied to specific terrains. <\/p>\n \u201cFuture Webb observations at higher spectral resolution will help determine whether the methane arises from a thin bound atmosphere or from plume-like outgassing,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>\n Makemake isn\u2019t frozen after all<\/p>\n Either outcome will sharpen our picture of Makemake\u2019s volatile cycle and, by extension, the behavior of other methane-rich worlds that orbit in the deep freeze beyond Neptune.<\/p>\n For a dwarf planet<\/a> once pegged as a quiet, frozen leftover, Makemake is suddenly looking lively\u00a0 \u2013 and that\u2019s good news. <\/p>\n It means the outer solar system is not just a museum of icy planets, but a place where sunlight, chemistry, and geology still conspire to keep tiny worlds active.<\/p>\n The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Makemake, one of the brightest icy bodies beyond Neptune, just joined an exclusive club. Using NASA\u2019s James Webb…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-132037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/makemake_dwarf-planet_gas-emissions-overlay_NASA_1s.webp.webp\")
<\/a>An SwRI-led team used Webb telescope observations (white) to detect methane gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake. Sharp emission peaks near 3.3 microns reveal methane in the gas phase above Makemake\u2019s surface. A continuum model (cyan) is overlaid for comparison; the gas emission peaks are identified where the observed spectrum rises above the continuum. An artistic rendering of Makemake\u2019s surface is shown in the background. Click image to enlarge. Credit: S. Protopapa, I. Wong\/SwRI\/STScI\/NASA\/ESA\/CSANext steps for Makemake research<\/p>\n