Since the impact that created the moons of Haumea is thought to have occurred in the early history of the Solar System, over the following billions of years it should have been tidally damped into a more circular orbit.

A second proposal suggests a more complicated origin for the family: that the material ejected in the initial collision instead coalesced into a large moon of Haumea, which gradually increased its distance from Haumea through tidal evolution, and was then later shattered in a second collision, dispersing its shards outwards.

The moons of Haumea are too faint to detect with telescopes smaller than about 2 metres in aperture, though Haumea itself has a visual magnitude of 17.5, making it the third brightest object in the Kuiper belt after Pluto and Makemake, and easily observable with a large amateur telescope.