Despite being ingloriously stripped of “planet” status a few years ago (with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson admitting to “driving the getaway car”), Pluto is large enough to have several moons orbiting around it — and scientists have just discovered another, with the help of the venerable Hubble telescope. Pluto’s fifth moon, currently known as S/2012 (134340) 1, was first photographed by Hubble on June 26th, with a total of nine separate sets of images captured over the last few weeks confirming its existence. Scientists expressed a bit of surprise that such a tiny dwarf planet can have such a complex system of satellites; the current theory is that Pluto collied with another large object billions of years ago, with its moons being a result of that collision.
Hubble telescope finds a fifth moon orbiting former planet Pluto
Despite being ingloriously stripped of “planet” status a few years ago, Pluto is large enough to have several moons orbiting around it — and scientists have just discovered another, with the help of the venerable Hubble telescope.
Despite being ingloriously stripped of “planet” status a few years ago, Pluto is large enough to have several moons orbiting around it — and scientists have just discovered another, with the help of the venerable Hubble telescope.
Given the relatively size of Pluto, its new moon isn’t terribly large in the grand scheme of things — it’s believed to be irregularly shaped and between six and 15 miles across. While not quite as dramatic a discovery as the Hubble telescope made a few months ago, it’s still exciting to discover more details about our solar system.
