This dwarf planet has gas: Makemake's methane surprises scientists

Scientists have detected methane gas on the dwarf planet Makemake, indicating that the distant body is a dynamic icy world.

The discovery was made by a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Makemake is one of the largest and brightest worlds beyond Neptune, and becomes only the second trans-Neptunian object, after Pluto, found to have a confirmed presence of gas.

"The Webb telescope has now revealed that methane is also present in the gas phase above the surface, a finding that makes Makemake even more fascinating," said SwRI's Silvia Protopapa, lead author of a new paper soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, in a statement.

"It shows that Makemake is not an inactive remnant of the outer solar system, bu