Pluto’s Moons Nix and Hydra Get Real / New Pluto Mountain Range Discovered

universetoday.com ^ | on July 21, 2015 | Bob King

[BenLurkin]

Nix looks like a strawberry-flavored jelly bean, but that reddish region with its vaguely bulls-eye shape hints at a possible crater on this 26 miles (42 km) long by 22 miles (36 km) wide moon. Hydra, which measures 34 x 25 miles (55 x 40 km), displays two large craters, one tilted to face the Sun (top) and the other almost fully in shadow. Differences in brightness across Hydra suggest differences in surface composition.

Now we’ve seen three of Pluto’ family of five satellites. Expect images of Pluto’s most recently discovered moons, Styx and Kerberos, to be transmitted to Earth no later than mid-October.

[BenLurkin]

Pluto’s moon Nix (left), shown here in enhanced color, has a reddish spot that has attracted the interest of mission scientists. The photo was taken on July 14, 2015 when New Horizons was about 102,000 miles (165,000 km) from Nix and shows features as small as about 2 miles (3 km) across. Hydra (right) was photographed with the LORRI instrument from a distance of about 143,000 miles (231,000 km). Features as small as 0.7 miles (1.2 km) are visible. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

[BenLurkin]

Formation of Pluto’s moons. 1: a Kuiper belt object approaches Pluto; 2: it impacts Pluto; 3: a dust ring forms around Pluto; 4: the debris aggregates to form Charon; 5: Pluto and Charon relax into spherical bodies. Smaller pieces became the irregularly-shaped moons Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx. Credit: Wikipedia

[BenLurkin]

ping

[Olog-hai]

At first I thought “Nix” was a typo, but it isn’t. The astronomers didn’t want to mix things up with an asteroid named “3908 Nyx”. I say ixnay on the asteroidway.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

I want to see Planet Xena and her moon Grabrilla.

[Army Air Corps]

Still, no sign of the Gamilas base...

[MinorityRepublican]

Why don't we have more missions like Voyager and New Horizons?

There are many dwarf planets beyond Pluto for us to explore

[aquila48]

They should be called potatoes instead of moons.

[JoeProBono]

[Straight Vermonter]

Why don't we have more missions like Voyager and New Horizons?

There are many dwarf planets beyond Pluto for us to explore

They are hoping to secure funding to keep New Horizons operating so it can examine some of the Kuiper Belt objects as it passes by.

[NormsRevenge]

They need to locate Niburu and or whatever lurks out there and keep this baby probing..

The distance this has covered is pretty impressive. It sure takes awhile to get data back.. And that may get even longer as it keeps trucking’ on..

[PrairieDawg]

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS—EXCEPT EUROPA PLUTO
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.

[MikeD]

The first two moons discovered by Hubble were called “Nix” and “Hydra” both as a nod to mythology and because they share initials with New Horizons.