Pluto's 4th moon |
Pluto's 4th moon |
Jul 20 2011, 01:55 PM
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#1
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
New moon discovered around Pluto using Hubble images!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/s...pluto-moon.html -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Jul 20 2011, 10:59 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 104 Joined: 1-June 08 Member No.: 4172 |
I see two possibilities. Perhaps Pluto will continue to be the only object in the solar system with a number of discovered natural satellites between two and 13, a fact which might point to a particularly interesting orbital history that could be related to the presence of Charon. Alternatively, it will be joined in this distinction by some significant fraction of other TNOs as soon as a similar degree of attention is paid to them. Either way, there will be some explaining to do - and I don't know which of "Pluto is unique" and "the Kuiper belt is full of 3,4,5+-body-systems" would be easier to explain.
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Jul 20 2011, 11:37 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
the only object in the solar system with a number of discovered natural satellites between two and 13 ...and the only object in the solar system with a natural satellite discovered in an image taken on a Tuesday. -------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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