Aster › Space program › Hiʻiaka
Hiʻiaka
Position on the route: 82/130 · level needed 355 · journey (Mk0 engine) 62.3 h
By the numbers
| Diameter | ≈ 320 km |
|---|---|
| Year | 49.1 days |
| Distance | 49,880 km |
| Found | 2005, Brown |
The story
Hiʻiaka is Haumea’s larger moon; Mike Brown’s team found it with the Keck telescope in 2005. It is named for the daughter of the Hawaiian goddess Haumea (a goddess of birth and fertility). About 320 km. Almost pure crystalline water ice: the same surface as the fragments of Haumea’s ‘collisional family’.
It is thought to have broken off in the giant impact that stretched Haumea into a fast-spinning egg. A ring around Haumea was found in 2017; the dwarf planet has a kind of ‘mini system’ around it.
Missions
- Keck and Hubble observations
- No mission planned
Colony note
No colony; an outpost for crystalline ice.
What probes bring back
- Haumea’s larger moon (≈320 km), found by Mike Brown in 2005; it circles in 49 days. Part of Haumea’s collisional family.
- A crystalline water-ice surface: debris from the giant impact that made Haumea.