Space
Pluto May Have 10 More Itsy Bitsy Tiny Undiscovered Moons
SWR Staff Writer
First Posted: Mar 14, 2013 04:10 PM EDT
Former planet Pluto may have more neighbors than previously imagined, according to new research.
Pluto may have upwards of ten additional moons, all of which are currently undiscovered, astronomers predict following a simulation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The finding comes as a result of simulations run by NASA, part of an attempt to safely guide its spacecraft's flyby of the distant dwarf planet in 2015.
Simulations conducted by the team show potential moons that may measure just 0.6 miles to 1.8 miles across. NASA scientists say the moons are too small to be observed from Earth, and that they are likely surrounded by a thick cloud of dust from which they originated.
If astronomers are able to detect ten additional moons, that would increase the number Pluto moons to fourteen. Currently, Pluto hosts five moons - Charon, P4, Nix, P5 and Hydra.
"It has our attention," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and an associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute, told Space.com via email, referring to the new research. He added he hasn't thoroughly analyzed the work yet.
"We've found more and more moons orbiting near Pluto - the count is now up to five," Dr. Alan Stern said at the time. "And we've come to appreciate that those moons, and those not yet discovered there, act as debris generators that populate the Pluto system with shards from small, colliding Kuiper Belt objects."
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First Posted: Mar 14, 2013 04:10 PM EDT
Former planet Pluto may have more neighbors than previously imagined, according to new research.
Pluto may have upwards of ten additional moons, all of which are currently undiscovered, astronomers predict following a simulation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The finding comes as a result of simulations run by NASA, part of an attempt to safely guide its spacecraft's flyby of the distant dwarf planet in 2015.
Simulations conducted by the team show potential moons that may measure just 0.6 miles to 1.8 miles across. NASA scientists say the moons are too small to be observed from Earth, and that they are likely surrounded by a thick cloud of dust from which they originated.
If astronomers are able to detect ten additional moons, that would increase the number Pluto moons to fourteen. Currently, Pluto hosts five moons - Charon, P4, Nix, P5 and Hydra.
"It has our attention," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission and an associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute, told Space.com via email, referring to the new research. He added he hasn't thoroughly analyzed the work yet.
"We've found more and more moons orbiting near Pluto - the count is now up to five," Dr. Alan Stern said at the time. "And we've come to appreciate that those moons, and those not yet discovered there, act as debris generators that populate the Pluto system with shards from small, colliding Kuiper Belt objects."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone