# Pluto's new Moon (P4)



## Drone (Jul 25, 2011)

A tiny piece of rock 13-34 km in diameter. Yeah the new (fourth) Pluto's satellite was discovered.








http://www.space.com/12370-pluto-dwarf-planet-oddity-infographic.html


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## micropage7 (Jul 29, 2011)

interesting, that we could find it.


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## Kreij (Jul 29, 2011)

It's not a moon ...


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## HossHuge (Jul 29, 2011)

Interesting story about the Death Star.  It looks exactly like Saturn's moon Mimas.  But think about this.  Star Wars came out in 1977.  Mimas was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel but the first images of Mimas weren't taken until 1980.


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## streetfighter 2 (Jul 29, 2011)

So the Pentium 4 finally got a moon named after it, eh?


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## Easy Rhino (Jul 29, 2011)

streetfighter 2 said:


> So the Pentium 4 finally got a moon named after it, eh?



it was that good!


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## Drone (Aug 9, 2011)

*Astronomers Predict that Pluto Has a Ring*

*Dust from Pluto's satellites ought to form a faint ring around the dwarf planet, according to new calculations.*



> Pryscilla Maria Pires dos Santos and pals at UNESP-São Paulo State University in Brazil calculate that the dust initially forms a ring about 16,000 km wide, encompassing the orbits of both Nix and Hydra. However, the solar wind then removes about 50% of the dust within a year.



They say that ring is way too faint to be seen from Earth



> They calculate that its transparency (or optical depth) has a value of 10^-11. By comparison, the main ring of Uranus has a transparency of between 0.5 and 2.5.
> Hubble ought to be able to see a ring around Pluto with a transparency of about 10^-5 so it's no surprise that it hasn't seen the ring that the Brazilian team predict. There's no way to see such a ring directly from Earth.



If their model is correct then Pluto definitely should have a ring.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27064/


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## The_Ish (Aug 9, 2011)

Soon, NASA will discover vampires and werewolves on that moon.



Easy Rhino said:


> it was that good!



P4 Prescott. The hottest moon in the known universe!


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## bostonbuddy (Aug 11, 2011)

And its still not a planet.


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## Drone (Aug 11, 2011)

The_Ish said:


> Soon, NASA will discover vampires and werewolves on that moon.


kthnxbai



bostonbuddy said:


> And its still not a planet.



Not only planets can have satellites. That's why Pluto and Eris got astronomers interested.


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## The_Ish (Aug 11, 2011)

Drone said:


> kthnxbai
> 
> 
> 
> Not only planets can have satellites. That's why Pluto and Eris got astronomers interested.



"New moon", get it? I know, I'm terrible


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## Drone (Jul 11, 2012)

Never thought that this thread can get bumped. *bump* Well now it got bumped. Pluto has 5 moons.



> Today, via twitter, Alan Stern (Principal Investigator for the New Horizons mission) has announced the discovery of a fifth moon by the Hubble Space Telescope: "Just announced: Pluto has come company-- We've discovered a 5th moon using the Hubble Space Telescope!"



Yeah welcome aboard, *P5*.



> P5 was detected in 14 separate sets of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/UVIS. Each image set comprises 11-12 three-minute exposures.



Here it is:






http://phys.org/news/2012-07-hubble-space-telescope-moon-pluto.html


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## micropage7 (Jul 12, 2012)

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/new-pluto-moon/
from wired.com


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## gopal (Jul 12, 2012)

Well i guess you should name this thread "Pluto's New Natural Satellite!


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## qubit (Jul 12, 2012)

Drone said:


> A tiny piece of rock 13-34 km in diameter. Yeah the new (fourth) Pluto's satellite was discovered.
> 
> http://i.space.com/images/i/11103/i02/pluto-weird-world-110720c-02.jpg?1311192197
> 
> ...



You've done it again Drone, interesting piece. Nice. 



Kreij said:


> It's not a moon ...
> http://img.techpowerup.org/110728/deathstar.png



Ah, so _you're_ Darth Vader. I knew it!


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## Drone (Sep 27, 2012)

*Gemini North 8-meter telescope obtained sharpest-ever ground-based images of Pluto and Charon*!!






Those lil suckers don't like to scatter the light much lol



> The resolution obtained in the observations, about 20 milliarcseconds, easily corresponds to separating a pair of automobile headlights in Providence, Rhode Island, from San Francisco, California. To achieve this level of definition, Gemini obtained a large number of very quick "snapshots" of Pluto and Charon. The researchers then reconstructed them into a single image after subtracting the blurring effects and ever-changing speckled artifacts caused by turbulence in the atmosphere and other optical aberrations. With enough snapshots (each image was exposed for only 60 milliseconds or about 1/20 of a second) only the light from the actual objects remains constant, and the artifacts reveal their transient nature, eventually canceling each other out.



http://phys.org/news/2012-09-sharpest-ever-ground-based-images-pluto-charon.html


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## HammerON (Sep 27, 2012)

Thanks Drone for the interesting science (astrology) updates


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## Phusius (Sep 27, 2012)

HammerON said:


> Thanks Drone for the interesting science (_*astronomy*_) updates



Bold, fixed.


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## NC37 (Sep 27, 2012)

micropage7 said:


> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/new-pluto-moon/
> from wired.com
> http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2012/07/pluto_moon.jpg



Quick AMD, buy the rights to P5 then rename it Athlon.


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## 3870x2 (Sep 27, 2012)

Any particular reason why it is hard to get images of Pluto and its moons?  We have looked at many things, more detailed, and millions times more distance away.


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## T4C Fantasy (Sep 27, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Any particular reason why it is hard to get images of Pluto and its moons?  We have looked at many things, more detailed, and millions times more distance away.



because those things a million times away are stars and galaxies, they are prime light sources, pluto isn't, and we can only see planets that far away if they are crossing a star


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## Drone (Sep 27, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Any particular reason why it is hard to get images of Pluto and its moons?  We have looked at many things, more detailed, and millions times more distance away.



Because they are tiny. The smaller thing is the less light it absorbs/reflects. I stated that earlier.


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## HammerON (Sep 27, 2012)

Phusius said:


> Bold, fixed.



Thanks. It was late and I was a little "happy"


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## DannibusX (Sep 28, 2012)

Hurry up New Horizons!  I wanna see some stuff.


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