Hubble Discovers a New Moon Around Pluto

NASA.gov ^ | July 20, 2011 | Tony Phillips

[MikeD]

It's getting crowded in the Pluto system! Go, New Horizons, Go!

[cripplecreek]

Where is New Horizons now

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/mission/whereis_nh.php

Most exciting thing going on in space for me at this point. The Dawn mission is cool but Pluto is the one I really want to get a look at.

[Kartographer]

I say they name the moon 'Flea', after all its circling Pluto! ;-)

[ngat]

3 Moons now, and there are revisionists that want to downgrade Pluto from Planet status? Shame on them!

[Moonman62]

It’s too bad the next telescope to replace Hubble is having major difficulties.

[MikeD]

The amazing thing is we’re over halfway there! I remember before launch we were all wondering what we’d be doing in ten years at arrival. Alan made a comment about most of the team still being in their fifties at arrival. I piped up that I wouldn’t quite be 40. He shot me this devlish look and told me to pipe down...

[Chode]

and they still want to defund the Hubble...

[cripplecreek]

Space based optical telescopes are fast becoming obsolete thanks to adaptive optics. Its a good thing really. Maintenance can be done after breakfast and before lunch without the hassle of hoisting someone into orbit.

I know there’s a 36 meter optical array in the works. Given the global economy its hard to say when it will come online. I have read that our first real look at an exoplanet will probably come from a ground based telescope.

[FredZarguna]

I say they name it “Bluto.” The Ninth Planet was originally named after him, but lobbying efforts by Popeye and Olive Oil put the deep six to that, and the Disney Compromise was the result.

[RitchieAprile]

I thought Pluto was demoted to asteroid..its a planet again?

[Paladin2]

I’m for calling it Spinach. You gotta do what ya gotta do.

[Moonman62]

Space based optical telescopes are fast becoming obsolete thanks to adaptive optics. Its a good thing really. Maintenance can be done after breakfast and before lunch without the hassle of hoisting someone into orbit.

And what NASA doesn't want you to know is that they could have launched new replacements for Hubble on unmanned rockets for much cheaper than a servicing mission.

[numberonepal]

3 Moons now, and there are revisionists that want to downgrade Pluto from Planet status? Shame on them!

Even the Sumerians believed Pluto to be a planet.

[Red Badger]

Thats pretty neat considering they didnt know it existed........

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

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[jmcenanly]

I wonder if all these ‘moons’ are actually debris from a relatively recent collision. I know that Pluto and Charon are mutually tidally locked, but I don’t know about Nix, Hydra and the new one.

[MikeD]

Optical telescopes, maybe, but you can’t do UV on the ground, and there are a number of IR bands that are difficult on the ground. Unfortunately JWST, if it happens, is IR only.

[MikeD]

The New Horizons team has always called Pluto a planet, and always will. It’s round, it goes around the Sun, and it has more moons. What more do you need?

[MikeD]

The leading theory from Boulder is that the moons were formed after Pluto & Charon formed. I don’t think we know enough about the new moons to know their rotation periods. They are in different orbits from Charon, so the most they could do is always show the same face to Pluto.

[Ramius]

Pluto is still a planet to me. To hell with them... :-)