Date: 12/07/2012 12:27:18
From: Dropbear
ID: 175261
Subject: Pluto's Pups

This is kind of cool!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-12/fifth-moon-spotted-near-pluto/4125704


United States astronomers have found a fifth moon orbiting far-away Pluto, NASA said.

The irregular-shaped moon, nicknamed S/2012 for now, is about 10 to 24 kilometres across, the US space agency said.

Last year, astronomers reported finding the fourth moon around the icy dwarf planet some five billion kilometres away.

“The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls,” said Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.

Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, is 1,030 kilometres across.

The other two, Nix and Hydra, are between 32 and 113 kilometres in diameter, NASA said.

Hubble – a potent space telescope that has transformed the field of astronomy since it was first launched in 1990 – discovered Nix and Hydra in 2005.

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Date: 12/07/2012 22:46:44
From: Cymek
ID: 175417
Subject: re: Pluto's Pups

It’s also impressive the can find such a tiny object so far away

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Date: 12/07/2012 22:49:44
From: Kingy
ID: 175418
Subject: re: Pluto's Pups

Yes, that must be such a tiny dot on the CCD.

I wonder how many more are out there…waiting.

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