Moons of Pluto
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The moons of Pluto are moons which orbit the dwarf planet Pluto. There are five moons orbiting the dwarf planet in total. The first one discovered was Charon which is near one quarter the size of Pluto. Charon was also sometimes considered a double dwarf planet. The second was Nix, the third was Hydra, the fourth moon was Kerberos, and the fifth moon to be discovered was Styx.
History
The first and largest moon discovered orbiting around Pluto was Charon, Charon was discovered on June 22 1978 by James Christy. In May 2005, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered two smaller moons which were named Nix and Hydra. [1] Two even smaller moons named Kerberos and Styx were discovered in 2011 and 2012. [2] [3]
Moons Of Pluto Media
The small moons to approximate scale, compared to Charon.
Charon and Pluto, to scale. Photo taken by New Horizons on approach.
Discovery image of Styx, overlaid with orbits of the satellite system
The relative masses of Pluto's moons. Charon dominates the system. Nix and Hydra are barely visible and Styx and Kerberos are invisible at this scale.
An oblique schematic view of the Pluto–Charon system showing that Pluto orbits a point outside itself. Also visible is the mutual tidal locking between the two bodies.
Rotations of the small moons of Pluto(animation; 01:00; released 10 November 2015) 
Formation of Pluto's moons. 1: a Kuiper belt object approaches Pluto; 2: it collides with Pluto; 3: a dust ring forms around Pluto; 4: the debris aggregates to form Charon; 5: Pluto and Charon relax into spherical bodies.
Three years after NASA's New Horizons spacecraft gave humankind our first close-up views of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, scientists are still revealing the wonders of these incredible worlds in the outer solar system. Marking the anniversary of New Horizons' historic flight through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, mission scientists released the highest-resolution color images of Pluto and Charon.
Charon_in_True_Color_-_High-Res
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References
- ↑ "Planetary Names: Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers". planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov.
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-05-01. Retrieved 2013-01-16.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ Science, Mike Wall 2012-07-11T15:06:47Z; Astronomy (11 July 2012). "Pluto Has a Fifth Moon, Hubble Telescope Reveals". Space.com.
