Via National Geographic News, it appears that Pluto has two more moons. We know this courtesy of Hubble, the space telescope that chimpy doesn't seem to worried about saving. Pluto has two more moons, Hubble confirms.
February 23, 2006—Rumors of twins have been swirling around a certain heavenly body lately (hint: we're not talking about Angelina Jolie). Now the truth can be revealed.
A Hubble Space Telescope image released yesterday confirms what a fuzzy shot taken last May only hinted at: Two more moons have been found orbiting Pluto, making a total of three.
The new picture, captured on February 15, shows S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2—catchier names will come later—faintly glowing in the starlike shine of Pluto and its other moon, Charon.
Astronomers led by astrophysicist Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, estimate that P 1 is 38 miles (61 kilometers) in diameter, versus P 2's 29 miles (47 kilometers).
The newfound moons orbit on the same plane as Charon. This suggests that all three moons were born from a cataclysmic collision of two Pluto-size objects millions of years ago, the researchers write in a report in today's issue of the journal Nature.
It occurs to me that that might be a nice place to send neo-cons.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment