[News] NASA'S Hubble Discovers Another Moon Around Pluto

[Scruce]

Here, I made one for you:

Ah, the old philoso-raptor!

 

[RisingFury]

But I do find that the most major flaw of the planet definition is that earth would not be considered a planet if we were that far out nor would Jupiter be a planet if it were 100au out.

Incorrect.

If Earth (or Jupiter) were that far out, they'd still be considered planets. Both are massive enough to clear their orbit of debris in the ~4.5 billion years, so as long as they were gravitationally bound to the Sun, they'd be planets.

 

[fsci123]

Incorrect.

If Earth (or Jupiter) were that far out, they'd still be considered planets. Both are massive enough to clear their orbit of debris in the ~4.5 billion years, so as long as they were gravitationally bound to the Sun, they'd be planets.

Well I'm pretty sure you remeber tyche and Rey said that if such a body did exsist it wouldn't be classified as a planet even though it is theoretically 4J mass.

 

[orb]

And there's yet another, 5th moon:

SPACE.com: Pluto Has a Fifth Moon, Hubble Telescope Reveals:

A new moon has been discovered orbiting Pluto, scientists announced today (July 11).

Researchers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found the moon, bringing the number of known Pluto satellites to five. The discovery comes almost exactly one year after Hubble spotted Pluto's fourth moon, a tiny body currently called P4.

"Just announced: Pluto has some company -- We've discovered a 5th moon using the Hubble Space Telescope!" Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., announced via the Twitter social networking website today.

{...}

NASA: Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

Universe Today: Fifth Moon Found Around Pluto

Discover Magazine - Bad Astronomy: A fifth moon for Pluto!

SpaceRef: NASA Hubble Discovers Fifth Moon of Pluto

Discovery News: Pluto Now Has Five (Yes, Five) Moons

RIA Novosti: Scientists Spot Fifth Moon Around Pluto

Aviation Week: New Moon

 

[Kyle]

Wonder how many moons Pluto actually has. Remember hearing speculation a long time ago that Pluto might even have a some form of ring system.

 

[N_Molson]

Pluto looks more and more a failed planet that didn't managed to agregate the matter around it. Still, it had enough mass to capture some of it. :hmm:

Our Moon is bigger then Pluto and all of its satellites together. I don't know why it's complaining

Quality over quantity.

 

[Unstung]

I'm glad we're sending New Horizons to Pluto, but I hope it will have time to complete all of its objectives and photograph all known moons.
We didn't even have time to name P4 and we already found another moon.

 

[RisingFury]

Wonder how many moons Pluto actually has. Remember hearing speculation a long time ago that Pluto might even have a some form of ring system.

I read a paper a few months ago placing the upper constraints on a ring system for Pluto. What we can see with current technology, the ring would be very faint and thin.

Still, it's important to see if there is one or not. Even a grain of dust can cause severe damage to New Horizons when it flies through the system...

---------- Post added at 21:59 ---------- Previous post was at 21:56 ----------

Pluto looks more and more a failed planet that didn't managed to agregate the matter around it. Still, it had enough mass to capture some of it. :hmm:

Mass is only part of what you need to capture objects. Even a very low mass object can capture asteroids with the conditions present in the Kupier belt.

I'm glad we're sending New Horizons to Pluto, but I hope it will have time to complete all of its objectives and photograph all known moons.

It won't unfortunately. New Horizons will have only a few hours of quality observing time. Of greatest importance are Pluto and Charon, but it should be able to look for other moons before it enters the system and probably also after it leaves.

 

[Unstung]

It won't unfortunately. New Horizons will have only a few hours of quality observing time. Of greatest importance are Pluto and Charon, but it should be able to look for other moons before it enters the system and probably also after it leaves.

How long would it take to capture the moons and expose them properly during the flyby? Voyager 2 was able to photograph many moons of Uranus and Neptune after all, but the moons were orbiting large planets.

 

[N_Molson]

Mass is only part of what you need to capture objects. Even a very low mass object can capture asteroids with the conditions present in the Kupier belt.

I know that. Sorry for the approximative english vocabulary.