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Moons Of Pluto
The dwarf planet Pluto has five natural satellites. In order of distance from Pluto, they are Charon (moon), Charon, Styx (moon), Styx, Nix (moon), Nix, Kerberos (moon), Kerberos, and Hydra (moon), Hydra. Charon, the largest, is mutually tidally locked with Pluto, and is massive enough that Pluto–Charon is sometimes considered a Double planet, double dwarf planet. History The innermost and largest moon, Charon (moon), Charon, was discovered by James Christy on 22 June 1978, nearly half a century after Pluto was discovered. This led to a substantial revision in estimates of Pluto's size, which had previously assumed that the observed mass and reflected light of the system were all attributable to Pluto alone. Two additional moons were imaged by astronomers of the Pluto Companion Search Team preparing for the ''New Horizons'' mission and working with the Hubble Space Telescope on 15 May 2005, which received the Provisional designation in astronomy, provisional designations S/2005 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Styx (moon)
Styx is a small natural satellite of Pluto whose discovery was announced on 11 July 2012. It was discovered by use of the Hubble Space Telescope. It is the second smallest moon of Pluto after Kerberos. It was imaged along with Pluto and Pluto's other moons by the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft in July 2015, albeit poorly with only a single image of Styx obtained. Styx is the second-closest known satellite to Pluto, and the fifth discovered. It was discovered one year after Kerberos. Styx is approximately across its longest dimension, and its orbital period is 20.1 days. Discovery and observations Styx was discovered by a team led by astronomer Mark R. Showalter, using fourteen sets of images taken between 26 June and 9 July 2012 by the Wide Field Camera 3 fitted to the Hubble. The discovery was announced on 11 July 2012. Styx is about half as bright as the dimmest previously known object in the system, Kerberos, and about one hundred thousandth as bright as Pluto. It was d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
