Hubble spies fourth moon at Pluto

[Gerald]

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have identified another moon around the dwarf planet Pluto.

It becomes the fourth object known to be circling the distant world after the long-recognised Charon and recently observed Nix and Hydra satellites.

Scientists are temporarily calling the new moon P4 and estimate its diameter to be 13 to 34 km (of 8 to 21 miles).

Pluto, controversially demoted from full planet status in 2006, will be the target of a big space mission in 2015.

Nasa's New Horizons probe is due to fly past the icy world and should get a good look at the moons, also.

"This is a fantastic discovery," said New Horizons' principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "Now that we know there's another moon in the Pluto system, we can plan close-up observations of it during our flyby."

P4 sits between the orbits of Nix and Hydra, which Hubble identified in 2005. The space telescope did not discover Charon - that was done by the US Naval Observatory in 1978 - but it was the first astronomical instrument to resolve it as a separate body from Pluto.

For comparison, Pluto itself is a little over 2,300km across, Charon about 1,200km in diamter, and Nix and Hydra in the range of 30 to 115km across.

Hubble first saw P4 with its new Wide Field Camera 3 on 28 June. Follow-up observations this month confirmed its existence.

New Horizons will fly by Pluto in the July of 2015. The spacecraft's seven instruments will carry out detailed mapping of the object's surface features, composition and atmosphere.

The probe will go to about 10,000km from Pluto and about 27,000km from Charon, before pressing onwards.

With extra Nasa approval and funding, the probe will then be maintained to travel on to other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of space that contains many frozen leftovers from the construction of our Solar System.

The $700m probe was launched in 2006, the same year the International Astronomical Union - astronomy's offical nomenclature body - decided Pluto no longer merited full planet status, giving it the new classifcation of dwarf planet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14220620


Note: 20 July 2011 Last updated at 14:07 GMT

[Growler]

So if it's big enough to have four moons, why isn't it a planet anymore? I mean, we've only the one moon, and we're a planet.:hmmm:

[KaptCosper]

Well the Earth is quite larger than pluto...

[Raptor1]

So if it's big enough to have four moons, why isn't it a planet anymore? I mean, we've only the one moon, and we're a planet.:hmmm:

Probably has to do with the fact that Luna outmasses Pluto and all its satellites several times over...

[Growler]

I'm just having fun with it. It's over 100+ degrees F, some ridiculously stupid amount of humidity, and I'm constantly perplexed by we humans.:D

[Gerald]

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/202/54184715pluto.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/199/54184715pluto.jpg/)

The Hubble Space Telescope observations of the moon were made in June and July.

[Growler]

Hmm... New Moon... New Moon... where have I heard that before?

Isn't that one of those vampire books with the sparkly vampire?

I move we send the author, all of the books, and all of the actors in the movie to the New Moon and let them have a go of it there.

[Sailor Steve]

Well, Charon put the Nix on Hydra, so they had to get another one.

Or maybe they needed a fourth for bridge (whist for our English cousins).

[TLAM Strike]

So if it's big enough to have four moons, why isn't it a planet anymore? I mean, we've only the one moon, and we're a planet.:hmmm: Mercury and Venus have none. ;)

Pluto is not a planet because it crosses the orbit of another planet. TPTP decided that a planet cannot cross the orbit of another.

[frau kaleun]

So it's not because of its size? Awww, then that totally ruins this:

http://dudelol.com/img/dear-nasa-your-mom-thought-i-was-big-enough.jpg

[TLAM Strike]

So it's not because of its size? Awww, then that totally ruins this:

http://dudelol.com/img/dear-nasa-your-mom-thought-i-was-big-enough.jpg

Plus it was the IAU (http://www.iau.org/) and not NASA that demoted Pluto.

But I could totally see someone sending that as a note to Neil DeGrasse Tyson. :haha:

[joegrundman]

i think the key point was that we have discovered lots of pluto-like bodies, and suspect there to be lots more, so unless we were to permit all of them to become planets (and imagine, if you could, the terrible consequences of having to admit 20 or more planets) we had to define planets somehow and any sensible definition had to put pluto on the other side with the new astronomical bodies, and not in our privileged planetary group


Well, Charon put the Nix on Hydra, so they had to get another one.

Or maybe they needed a fourth for bridge (whist for our English cousins).

but with that out of the way I must address this terrible insinuation. Bridge, of the contract version, is and has been played on these sceptred isles for about as long as it has in the US. Whist was pretty much rendered obsolete by it in the late Victorian era.

[Sailor Steve]

Whist and bridge aren't the same? But Hornblower played...but...but...I actually got something wrong?

Oh, the horror!
:rotfl2:

Thanks, Joe. :sunny:

[Gerald]

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have identified another moon around the dwarf planet Pluto.

It becomes the fourth object known to be circling the distant world after the long-recognised Charon and recently observed Nix and Hydra satellites.

Scientists estimate the new moon's diameter to be 13-34km (eight to 21 miles).

Pluto, controversially demoted from full planet status in 2006, will be the target of a big space mission in 2015.

Nasa's New Horizons probe is due to fly past the icy world and should get a good look at the moons.

"This is a fantastic discovery," said New Horizons' principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "Now that we know there's another moon in the Pluto system, we can plan close-up observations of it during our flyby."

The new moon carries the provisional designation S/2011 (134340) 1. At some point in the future, when the orbit is well known, the object will be given a Roman numeral designation and a more memorable name, says the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Minor Planet Center.

The fourth moon sits between the orbits of Nix and Hydra, which Hubble identified in 2005. The space telescope did not discover Charon - that was done by the US Naval Observatory in 1978 - but the famous observatory was the first astronomical instrument to resolve it as a separate body from Pluto.

For comparison, Pluto itself is a little over 2,300km across, Charon about 1,200km in diameter, and Nix and Hydra are in the range of 30-115km across.

Hubble first saw the new moon with its new Wide Field Camera 3 on 28 June. Follow-up observations this month confirmed its existence.

New Horizons will fly past Pluto in July 2015. The spacecraft's seven instruments will carry out detailed mapping of the object's surface features, composition and atmosphere.

The probe will go to about 10,000km from Pluto and about 27,000km from Charon, before pressing onwards.

With extra Nasa approval and funding, the probe will travel to other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of space that contains many frozen leftovers from the construction of our Solar System.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14220620


Note: Update Record,21 July 2011 Last updated at 15:06 GMT

[joegrundman]

Whist and bridge aren't the same? But Hornblower played...but...but...I actually got something wrong?

Oh, the horror!
:rotfl2:

Thanks, Joe. :sunny:

no they are not the same. whist is the parent from which bridge, the altogether more brilliant child, was born.

whist is also 4 players in partnerships, but there is no dummy, and there is no bidding phase. trumps are chosen randomly, the last card dealt being turned face up to determine trumps - although there are many different conventions to determine trumps - e.g rotating players get opportunity to choose trumps and so on.

the rest of the game is then played out as per bridge after the bidding is over, but without dummy and without anyone revealing their hand to their partner.

scoring is a simple matter of tricks above 6.

it's still one of the best card games not requiring betting as an integral part, but the total displacement of it by bridge is for a good reason. It's a good introduction for new players that you intend to teach bridge to later.

edit: and to maintain some semblance of ontopic - vendor that last post was very similar to the first.

and i think that the number of moons around pluto is not a significant event since they are really just asteroids, or shards even, that have been caught in pluto's gravity. for all i know they haven't even been tidally locked yet!

[TLAM Strike]

for all i know they haven't even been tidally locked yet!Only about half (Maybe less) of the moons in the System are tidally locked. Ours and three of the four Galilean Moons are the major ones. ;)

[Growler]

Also, in before "that's no moon..."