Posted on 10/31/2005 6:22:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
BALTIMORE - Pluto has three moons, not one, new images from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest. Pluto, discovered as the ninth planet in 1930, was thought to be alone until its moon Charon was spotted in 1978.
The new moons, more than twice as far away as Charon and many times fainter, were spotted by Hubble in May.
While the observations have to be confirmed, members of the team that discovered the satellites said Monday they felt confident about their data.
"Pluto and Charon are not alone, they have two neighbors," said Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Follow-up observations by the Hubble are planned in February. If they are confirmed, the International Astronomical Union will consider names for the objects.
Earlier this month another group of astronomers, who claim to have discovered the 10th planet in the solar system, also said that body had a moon. (Whether the group actually discovered a new planet has not been confirmed.)
Both Pluto and the new, so-called planet are found in the Kuiper Belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune. In fact, about a fifth of the objects observed in the region have been found to have satellites, and the percentage could grow as more are found, said Keith Noll, an astronomer at the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute. The institute coordinates use of the orbiting telescope, but Noll wasn't part of the Pluto team. He believes Pluto team's finding is convincing.
Weaver said Pluto would be the first Kuiper belt object found to have multiple satellites. Depending on how reflective the surface of the moons are, the newly found moons are estimated to be between 30 and 100 miles across, he said.
Further observations of Pluto and the two new bodies will help astronomers more accurately determine the mass and density of Pluto and its large moon Charon, said team member Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
The jury is still out on the impact additional moons will have on the ongoing debate over whether Pluto is actually a planet.
While having a moon is a not a criteria — Mercury and Venus are moonless — having more can't hurt, Stern said.
"Just on a visceral level, the fact that Pluto has a whole suite of companions will make some people feel better," Stern said.
_____
On the Net:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2005/19
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/plutonews
NASA, Save Hubble!
Hubble is mankinds finest telescope, ignorant people will try to tell you that land based telescopes can "see" better then Hubble, that is Bull, space based telescopes see MUCH better then land based. It would take one shuttle mission to service Hubble all the equipment is on land, millions of dollars of new insturments. It will be criminal to let Hubble burn up in the atmoshere, Hubble is in it's prime and doing great science, Hubble was designed to be serviced and needs serviving, but once again our government fails miserably, our leaders are fools that care only about themselves.
Yes, the announcement was today. In fact, my boss got an email from Alan Stern about the announcement, but he had to keep it quiet until the "public" announcement. I can't wait until the next observations in February.
MD, who gets to work on New Horizons this weekend
Aw heck, you too? Thought it was just me..
Aw heck, you too? Thought it was just me..
In many ways, I consider "Silent Running" to be the best Science Fiction movie ever made.
I can still remember that damned them song, so pathetic, it rings in my head sometimes. I believe that was Bruce Dern at his finest. Used his whackiness to great effect.
fyi
They will not only replace the pieces that are failing, but this repair will include a major upgrade in capability. :-)
Nope. The Webb telescope is the only one on the books now and it does not cover the bands Hubble sees in. Hubble was designed to have improved systems attached as they were developed.
Gibran's works have been the Users Manual for coeds since the 1920s it seems.
WOW! Tell us how you really feel. :-)
BTW, I agree we need to save Hubble. Too many of our great observatories and scientific instruments are being or have been destroyed. I know of one battle I am personally in the middle of to save a five 60-foot dish radio telescope array as we speak. Really iffy at the moment. 20 days ago I would not have given a plugged nickel for it.
Alright!
What does that mean?
It's like the ongoing debate about what is a planet and what is not. What is a moon, anything that is locked in some kind of synchronic orbit? That's tough, because all the objects in the inner solar system are locked in some kind of synchronic behavior. Inner meaning anything as close as Pluto.
There have been images of Pluto in the past couple years that showed some surface feature. Just a few pixels, not real sharp.
That's an old picture from the clean room at APL. RALPH hasn't been installed yet, and it looks like LORRI is off as well. Some more up-to-date pictures may be found at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/ .
The LBT is supposed to be ten times sharper than Hubble. Seen that one yet? Just got first light.
What about the Spitzer Space Telescope (for the infra-red spectrum).
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
And the Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope (for the X-Ray Spectrum.)
http://chandra.harvard.edu/
And the SOHO Space telescope (for multiple spectrum images of the sun.)
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html
And the up-coming Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope
http://www-glast.stanford.edu/
As you mentioned, the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/
Among many other single mission space telescopes/satellites.
Yuppers.
That horrible movie is the worst form of mental torture one can inflict.
I have to see it again...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.