Feb 23 2006
From The Space Library
A team of scientists, led by Harold A. Weaver Jr. of Johns Hopkins University, S. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, and Richard P. Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported in Nature their discovery of two small satellites orbiting Pluto. The team had sighted the moons, which had diameters of an estimated 60 kilometers (37 miles) and 50 kilometers (31 miles), respectively, in May 2005, using the HST. Both small moons circle on the same orbital plane as Pluto’s large moon Charon. In addition, the durations of all three bodies’ orbital rotations are simple ratios of one another. These facts led scientists to conclude that the same collision event created all three moons. Furthermore, the evidence raised the possibility that the distant Kuiper Belt, which includes Pluto, could contain other multiple-body systems. The researchers also speculated that debris from impacts in the Pluto system could have formed rings or arcs around Pluto. Thus far, scientists have only documented ring systems around gas giant planets, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Ker Than, “Pluto Might Have Rings,” Space.com 22 February 2006, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060222_pluto_moons.html (accessed 8 September 2010); see also H.A. Weaver et al., “Discovery of Two New Satellites of Pluto,” Nature 439, no. 7079 (23 February 2006): 943-945; S. A. Stern et al., “A Giant Impact Origin for Pluto’s Small Moons and Satellite Multiplicity in the Kuiper Belt,” Nature 439, no. 7079 (23 February 2006): 946-948; and Richard P. Binzel, “Planetary Science: Pluto’s Expanding Brood,” Nature 439, no.7079 (23 February 2006): 924-925.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
