Pluto has more moons than previously thought
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 9:05 am
[url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2005-10-31-pluto-moons_x.htm]USA Today[/url] (warning: POP-UPs) wrote:Hubble Space Telescope astronomers announced Monday that they have spotted two previously unknown moons there.
"This is a whole new chapter in the Pluto story," says discovery team co-leader Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. The moons, which don't yet have formal names, also were spotted when Hubble scientists reviewed 2002 Pluto observations made by Lowell Observatory astronomer Marc Buie.
Charon, discovered in 1978, orbits much closer to Pluto at 12,024 miles and is bigger at 752 miles across. The astronomers estimate the moons range from 30 to 100 miles wide. The closer one orbits 30,000 miles from Pluto, and the more distant one is 40,000 miles out.
