Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto
11 Jul 2012, 15:30 UTC
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A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the
discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The moon is
estimated to be irregular in shape and 6 to 15 miles across. It is in a
58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be
co-planar with the other satellites in the system. Provisionally designated
S/2012 (134340) 1, the latest moon was detected in nine separate sets of images taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on June 26, 27, and 29, 2012 and July 7 and 9, 2012. This discovery increases the number of known moons orbiting Pluto to five.
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