Pluto and friends (Image: NASA/ESA/M. Showalter/SETI Institute) |
"The Hubble Space Telescope spotted the new moon, which has been designated P4 for the time being. Astronomers estimate it is between 13 and 34 kilometres across. "I find it remarkable that Hubble's cameras enabled us to see such a tiny object so clearly from a distance of more than 3 billion miles [5 billion kilometres]," says Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who led the observing team.
Three other moons of Pluto were already known. Charon, discovered in 1978, is by far the largest at about 1000 kilometres across. Nix and Hydra,discovered in Hubble images in 2005, are tiny by comparison: both are estimated to be between 32 and 113 kilometres in diameter."
read more in: newscientist.com
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