Haumea is a dwarf planet in the Solar System, our region of space within the universe. The Sun is the star at the centre of this system. Explore its story and place in our planetary neighbourhood, then find it on the interactive 3D space map.

Haumea is an unusually fast-spinning, elongated dwarf planet with a thin ring and two known moons. Its shape and rapid rotation make it one of the most distinctive large trans-Neptunian objects.

Rocky interior with an icy coating is inferred. Detailed elemental abundances and atmospheric composition are poorly constrained.

Dwarf planet Haumea was originally designated 2003 EL61 (and nicknamed Santa by one discovery team). Haumea is located in the Kuiper Belts, a doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Haumea is an oval-shaped dwarf planet that is one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system. The fast spin distorts Haumea's shape, making this dwarf planet look like a football.

Two teams claim credit for discovering Haumea citing evidence from observations made in 2003 and 2004. The International Astronomical Union’s Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature lists the discovery location as Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain on March 7, 2003, but no official discoverer is listed. Haumea is named after the Hawaiian goddess of fertility.

Haumea is extremely cold and doesn't appear to have conditions suitable for life.

With an equatorial diameter of about 1,080 miles (about 1,740 kilometers), Haumea is about 1/7 the width of Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Haumea would be about as big as a sesame seed. From an average distance of 4 billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers), Haumea is 43 astronomical units away from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 6 hours to travel from the Sun to Haumea.

Haumea takes 285 Earth years to make one trip around the Sun. As Haumea orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 4 hours, making it one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system.

It is possible that a large object impacted Haumea billions of years ago and set off Haumea's spin and created its moons.

Haumea has two known moons: Namaka is the inner moon, and Hi'iaka is the outer moon. Both were discovered in 2005 and named for the mythological daughters of Haumea. Hi'iaka is the patron goddess of the island of Hawaii and of hula dancers. Namaka is a water spirit in Hawaiian mythology.

Haumea is the first known Kuiper Belt Object to have rings. Scientists announced the discovery in 2017 after watching the dwarf planet pass in front of a star.

Dwarf planet Haumea is a member of a group of objects that orbit in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit of Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. This distant realm is populated with thousands of miniature icy worlds which formed early in the history of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. These icy, rocky bodies are called Kuiper Belt objects, transneptunian objects, or plutoids.

Astronomers believe Haumea is made of rock with a coating of ice.

We know very little about Haumea's surface.

We know very little about Haumea's atmosphere.

Scientists do not think Haumea has a magnetosphere.