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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchMakemake has methane gas around it, but scientists have not established that it has a persistent, globally bound atmosphere. A 2025 study using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detected methane fluorescence. The gas could be escaping into a temporary cloud, or it could form an exceptionally thin atmosphere held by the dwarf planet’s gravity. That finding does not contradict a 2011 observation that ruled out a substantial, Pluto-like global atmosphere.
What did JWST find on Makemake?
A 2025 JWST study reported the first detection of methane fluorescence from Makemake. Fluorescence is light emitted by gas after it absorbs sunlight. The result establishes that methane gas is being released from the dwarf planet; it does not, by itself, establish how long the gas stays nearby or whether gravity keeps it bound.
Makemake is a Kuiper Belt dwarf planet beyond Neptune. NASA gives its radius as approximately 715 kilometers and its average distance from the Sun as 45.8 astronomical units; it takes about 305 Earth years to complete an orbit. Frozen methane and ethane have been detected on its surface, providing context for the methane gas JWST observed.
Makemake is only the second trans-Neptunian object, after Pluto, with this specific kind of methane-fluorescence detection. The observation is evidence of volatile release, not proof that Makemake has an atmosphere like Pluto’s.
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Is the gas a temporary coma or an atmosphere?
The 2025 study considered two explanations. Its authors say neither model fully reproduces the observations, so the gas’s long-term state remains unsettled.
A temporary, expanding coma
Methane released from a localized source could spread into a temporary cloud around Makemake and then escape. In this interpretation, the gas need not form a stable envelope or remain gravitationally bound for long.
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An exceptionally thin, bound atmosphere
Some methane could instead remain attached to Makemake under its gravity. In this model, the study authors estimate gas temperatures near 40 kelvins and surface pressures of about 10 picobars. This would be an extraordinarily tenuous atmosphere, not a dense envelope comparable to Pluto’s.
Why did the 2011 observation suggest Makemake had no atmosphere?
On 23 April 2011, Makemake passed in front of a background star in an event called a stellar occultation. Astronomers watched the star’s light as Makemake crossed it. A substantial atmosphere would bend the starlight and make it fade gradually before the solid body blocked it, then brighten gradually as the star reappeared. Instead, the star disappeared and returned abruptly.
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ESO’s 2012 account of the results said the observation ruled out a global Pluto-like atmosphere at a level of one-thousandth of Pluto’s atmosphere. It did not rule out a local atmosphere covering only part of Makemake’s surface. The finding was therefore about what the occultation could detect: it was not evidence that no methane could ever be present around the dwarf planet.
How can both findings be true?
The observations address different possibilities. The occultation looked for the gradual dimming expected from a substantial global atmosphere. JWST detected methane emission, but the methane could be localized, short-lived, or so thin that it would not produce that occultation signature. Gas around Makemake and the absence of a substantial Pluto-like global atmosphere can both be true.
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| Question | Temporary coma | Bound atmosphere |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the gas? | An expanding cloud around Makemake, possibly from a localized source. | Gas held close to Makemake by its gravity. |
| How long does it persist? | Temporary; methane escapes. | Potentially persistent, though the study does not establish that it is stable over the long term. |
| What pressure did the study estimate? | The study does not give a pressure estimate for this explanation. | About 10 picobars in the bound-atmosphere model. |
| How certain is this interpretation? | One of the explanations considered; not confirmed. | One of the explanations considered; not confirmed. |
What would establish whether Makemake has a persistent atmosphere?
The study authors say higher spectral resolution and improved signal-to-noise are needed to distinguish the coma from the bound-atmosphere explanation. Those observations would help characterize the methane gas more precisely; the existing detection alone does not settle whether it remains gravitationally attached.
NASA notes that Makemake may develop a very thin, probably nitrogen atmosphere near perihelion, the point in its orbit closest to the Sun. That possibility is distinct from the 2025 methane detection: the study’s result does not establish a stable nitrogen atmosphere or prove that the observed methane is bound.
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