Pluto has more moons than previously thought

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makc
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Pluto has more moons than previously thought

Post by makc » 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.

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orin stepanek
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Post by orin stepanek » Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:54 pm

Neat! Does that give Pluto a little more creditability as a planet? There are more wonders found in the solar system all the time.
Orin

ta152h0
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Pluto newly discovered moons

Post by ta152h0 » Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:31 pm

We need to land there and vheck it out ... :D
Wolf Kotenberg

crosscountry
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Re:

Post by crosscountry » Tue Nov 01, 2005 3:03 pm

wow. this is amazing. Go HUBBLE

S. Bilderback
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Post by S. Bilderback » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:40 am

If all goes well we'll have a probe there in a little over ten years, set to launch early 2006.

makc
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Post by makc » Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:35 pm


S. Bilderback
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Post by S. Bilderback » Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:05 pm


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