Pluto has a new moon

Tsanten Eywa 'eveng · July 20, 2011, 10:59:25 AM

Pluto has a new moon according to the telescope Hubble
http://www.space.com/12356-pluto-fourth-moon-discovery-hubble-photo.html

Amaya · July 20, 2011, 11:41:29 AM

interesting!

>.> is it bad that the thing that most stuck with me about the whole article is that they misspelled "Kuiper Belt"?

Raiden · July 20, 2011, 12:58:58 PM

That's no moon!

In all seriousness, it's kind of cool I guess, but chances are that it's just another rocksicle floating around a bigger rocksicle.

Popsicle + Rock = Rocksicle.

Clarke · July 20, 2011, 01:29:14 PM

Though this IS a moon!

Kamean · July 20, 2011, 01:46:18 PM

Сool! Seems like Death Star.

Human No More · July 24, 2011, 05:39:03 PM

I think it's the crater

...they really shouldn't have de-planeted Pluto, now it's proving more interesting than ever.

Dreamlight · July 29, 2011, 08:40:29 PM

Pluto is a planet, damnit!

Clarke · July 30, 2011, 09:15:29 AM

But then so is Eris.

Tsanten Eywa 'eveng · July 30, 2011, 12:17:48 PM

Quote from: Thomas R on July 30, 2011, 09:15:29 AM
But then so is Eris.

Eris have only 1 moon, but Pluto has 4 moons

Tirea Aean · July 30, 2011, 12:25:14 PM

with four moons, how can Pluto not be a planet? So weird.

* Tirea Aean looks up the definition of "Planet"

Kamean · July 30, 2011, 01:34:10 PM

Quote from: Tirea Aean on July 30, 2011, 12:25:14 PM
with four moons, how can Pluto not be a planet? So weird.
* Tirea Aean looks up the definition of "Planet"

Agree. It should be planet.

Tsa'räni · July 30, 2011, 06:46:11 PM

No, it really shouldn't be a planet. The 2006 IAU definition of planets is a good one and accurately removed Pluto from planet status.

Pluto fails to meet the condition that states a planet must clear out the area around its orbit. So when you've got an object that is incapable of clearing out its orbit, it's just another object floating around out there with other objects.

Human No More · July 31, 2011, 10:21:26 AM

Quote from: Tsa'räni on July 30, 2011, 06:46:11 PM
No, it really shouldn't be a planet. The 2006 IAU definition of planets is a good one and accurately removed Pluto from planet status.

Pluto fails to meet the condition that states a planet must clear out the area around its orbit. So when you've got an object that is incapable of clearing out its orbit, it's just another object floating around out there with other objects.

Wouldn't that disqualify Earth as one then?
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/2010_TK7

Clarke · July 31, 2011, 10:32:12 AM

Quote from: Human No More on July 31, 2011, 10:21:26 AM
Quote from: Tsa'räni on July 30, 2011, 06:46:11 PM
No, it really shouldn't be a planet. The 2006 IAU definition of planets is a good one and accurately removed Pluto from planet status.

Pluto fails to meet the condition that states a planet must clear out the area around its orbit. So when you've got an object that is incapable of clearing out its orbit, it's just another object floating around out there with other objects.
Wouldn't that disqualify Earth as one then?
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/2010_TK7

TK7 is usually further away than the Moon, so probably not.

Tsa'räni · July 31, 2011, 02:15:20 PM

Quote from: Human No More on July 31, 2011, 10:21:26 AM
Wouldn't that disqualify Earth as one then?

No, it doesn't disqualify it or any of the other accepted planets.

The key difference is the discrepancy in mass between the planets and any close objects, including those occupying Lagrangian points in planetary orbits. The planets are much, much more massive than any of the near objects and they dominate the objects in those orbits. That does not necessarily mean they always clear them out because sometimes objects fall into a place where they obtain a stable orbit based on the dynamics of gravitational attractions in our solar system.

Another example would be Neptune's interaction with Pluto. Neptune dominates Pluto's orbit and has locked it into an orbital resonance (I forget what the ratio is off the top of my head).

So the phrase "clearing out" may be a little vague, but I'm not sure any wording would be immune to the word game some people like to play regarding this topic. The bottom line is that Pluto is just not massive enough to clear out, dominate, or anything else, its orbital path. It does meet the first two IAU criteria, though, so it's considered a dwarf planet.

Äteya · July 31, 2011, 04:04:11 PM

Wow, it does look like the Death Star.
Ka-boom.
There goes Pluto.

Dreamlight · August 02, 2011, 10:54:00 PM

I still say Pluto is a planet, damn it!

*marches around the IAU with a picket sign*

Tsanten Eywa 'eveng · July 20, 2012, 09:18:05 PM

a new moon again has been found around Pluto, this is the fifth moon that has been discovered

http://www.space.com/16531-pluto-fifth-moon-hubble-discovery.html

A tiny 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

Stern is principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which is scheduled to fly by the Pluto system in 2015. It will be the first mission ever to visit the dwarf planet.

Pluto's other moons are Charon, Nix, Hydra and P4. Charon is by far the largest, measuring 648 miles (1,043 kilometers) across. Nix and Hydra range between 20 and 70 miles (32 to 113 km) wide, while P4 is thought to be 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 km) across.

The new moon looks a lot more like P4 than like Charon.

"It's smaller than P4," Stern told SPACE.com.

"We're finding more and more, so our concern about hazards is going up," he added, referring to the collision risk New Horizons will face when it cruises by Pluto in a few years.

Niri Te · July 20, 2012, 09:27:03 PM

If it has moons orbiting it, and it orbits the sun, however erratically, then doggone it, Pluto should be reclassified as a Planet.

Seze Mune · July 21, 2012, 12:06:37 AM

Quote from: Niri Te on July 20, 2012, 09:27:03 PM
If it has moons orbiting it, and it orbits the sun, however erratically, then doggone it, Pluto should be reclassified as a Planet.

Mllte oe. Or else we can have moons orbiting moons orbiting moons without even an original planet to orbit.

"Pluto is the vanguard of an entire new class of Trans-Neptunian Objects that are part of the Kuiper belt (or the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, in another interesting dispute over nomenclature as opposed to definition). " Poor Pluto is reclassified as a DWARF planet. Like some kind of Hobbit Planet. Jeez.

A planet is a planet is a planet...a rose by any other name, as Shakespeare would say. Humans are so presumptive. Like putting Pluto in whatever mental box of nomenclature we use is going to make some kind of difference to what Pluto actually is. What a waste of scientific brainpower.

OK, time to stop the rant. I'm feeling kinda grouchy right now and I don't wanna take it out on Pluto, poor thing. It's been enough of a punching bag already.