New Horizons reveals Pluto's striking surface variations and unique moon rotations

http://phys.org ^ | October 15, 2015 | Provided by: University of Maryland / NASA

[Red Badger]

Pluto PinG!.........................

[C19fan]

Pretty interesting for a dwarf planet. :)

[Red Badger]

I say it’s a planet, it’s just a small planet. With TWO MOONS!......................

[Resolute Conservative]

You sure that is not Lena Dunham and Rosie circling around looking for a buffet?

[onedoug]

Three. Charon, Nix and Hydra.

[rjsimmon]

Hamilton helped confirm the shapes, sizes and unique rotations of two of Pluto's moons and the finding that no other moons appear to orbit Pluto.

Did he lose Charon or just ignoring it? How about Kerberos and Hydra?

[Red Badger]

Oh, great, now I’ll haveta rearrange my entire cosmological model mobile.....................Thanks!.......................

[JPG]

--Three. Charon, Nix and Hydra.

Uh, how 'bout five.

Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra.

[Red Badger]

Perhaps he was out sick that day the memo came out about the others.........................

[EternalVigilance]

However, the bright surfaces of the two moons surprise astronomers because a variety of external processes should have darkened the surfaces of these moons over time.

They don't dare consider that there hasn't been enough time.

That would be heresy.

[Red Badger]

They have no way of knowing how long the moons have been moons of Pluto. They could have just been added to its retinue a few decades ago, or just before they discovered them.....................

[Cats Pajamas]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LtJQDNCyoJI

Maryland astronomers are true Da Vinci’s.

[Verginius Rufus]

Nix and Hydra can’t get their act together but it’s Charon’s fault? Can’t anyone take responsibility any more?

[Red Badger]

IIRC, Nix and Hydra are females. Of course it’s Charon’s fault! It’s ALWAYS they guy’s fault................

[Red Badger]

AWESOME! I GOTTA TRY THAT!....................

[SampleMan]

I would think that for a satellite to be considered a moon, it would have to be large enough to form a sphere. Obviously that’s not the case.

[Red Badger]

Mar's moons, Phobos and Diemos:

[SampleMan]

Yes, I knew that the moons of Mars weren’t spherical, its just odd.

Our moon qualifies as a dwarf planet if considered alone and it is a very large ratio in size, so why would the Earth-Luna relationship not be considered a twin-planet system? Or perhaps it is. And yet, the if the Earth were orbiting Jupiter, it would be much, much smaller by comparison to Jupiter than our moon is to us.

[Moonman62]

Maybe non-spherical moons should be called dwarf moons.