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Pluto's 3 Moons and a Probe to Study Them

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the still-trying-to-thumb-a-ride dept.

It doesn't come easy writes "For those of you keeping score, Pluto now officially has three moons, with more possibly to follow. The newfound moons orbit about 27,000 miles (44,000 kilometers) from Pluto, more than twice as far as Charon, Pluto's other satellite. They are 5,000 times dimmer than Charon. The moons were found using the Hubble Space Telescope. For now, Pluto is the only Kuiper Belt object known to have satellites. Some nice images of Pluto and its moons are included in links. Enjoy!" Relatedly IZ Reloaded writes "NASA says the Atlas 5 rocket that will carry the New Horizons Pluto probe has suffered slight damage thanks to Hurricane Wilma. New Scientist reports: "The Atlas 5 rocket stands within a construction hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Florida's east coast. As Wilma rolled though the region on 24 October, fierce 122-kilometer-per-hour winds tore holes in the hangar's 83-meter-tall door and caused minor damage to the rocket inside.""

7 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Hey now! by rackhamh · · Score: 3, Funny

    There will be no moon probing while I'm around!

    1. Re:Hey now! by mctk · · Score: 5, Funny

      Those aren't moons. Those are space stations.

      --
      Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
  2. Or by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pluto now officially has three moons

    More like "four big asteroids are gravitating around each other beyond the orbit of Neptune".

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Remember by eclectro · · Score: 1, Funny


    Pluto is a planet, not an object. Anything else is either cultural revisionism or solar system wide discrimination.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  4. Pluto has 3 moons? by Viper+Daimao · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that mean we can call them "Cerebus" collectively?

    --
    "In the game of life, someone always has to lose. To me, if life were fair, that someone would always be Oklahoma." -DKR
  5. Re:Actually... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...it's not even official yet

    Okay then: "two big asteroids are known to be orbiting around each other beyond Neptune, but two more are presumed to have joined the party, which incidentally pisses Neptune off to high heavens".

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  6. Re:Hubble by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny
    Yeah, I can see why too:


    Dubya: we need to kill Hubble. We have more, erhm.., pressing needs for money
    Hubble astronomers: No wait! We found another Pluto moon !
    NASA: come on, we can't kill the thing, it's useful
    Dubya: hmm, I dunno...
    Astronomers: Wait! wait! anOTHER moon!!
    NASA: Wow
    Dubya: stop that...
    Astronomers: Hold on... HOLY CRAP, TEN MORE MOONS! and a black hole inside Jupiter too!!!
    Dubya: We're closing guys, you need to go home now...
    Astronomers: NO REALLY! LOOK! ALL THESE MOONS!!! ...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash