It may not be a satellite , but Pluto ’s got Moon to burn . Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spied the icy orb ’s fifth satellite . Everybody , say hello to S/2012 ( 134340 ) , or “ P5 ” for short .
measure out somewhere between 6 and 15 miles in diam , P5 may have to compete with P4 — which was discovered almost exactly one twelvemonth ago — for the title of Pluto ’s small lunation , but astronomers say it fits right in with the rest of the dwarf major planet ’s scheme . “ The Moon form a series of neatly nested orbits , ” say squad lead Mark Showalter in a financial statement released by Hubble , “ a morsel like Russian dolls . ” ( Click hereto see how P5 stacks up against the remainder of Pluto ’s moons . )
Its size also think of NASA will have to keep an heart out for P5 when its New Horizons spacecraft soars through the Pluto system in 2015 . The Agency has been using Hubble to calculate for possible risk to New Horizons in the months and years leading up to its historic flyby .
“ The stock of the Pluto system of rules we ’re taking now with Hubble will serve the New Horizons team plan a safer trajectory for the spacecraft , ” said Southwest Research Institute ’s Alan Stern , the missionary station ’s principal research worker .
realise as we ’re alreadytalking about planetal nomenclature today , I ca n’t help but question what they ’ll hoist up refer P4 and 5 . ( Nix , CharonandHydraare all figures from Grecian mythology with affiliation to Hades ( aka Pluto ) , god of the Underworld . )
https://gizmodo.com/10-weird-rules-that-control-how-we-name-the-planets-5924992
take more over at HUBBLESITE .
AstronomyNASAPlutoScienceSpace
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