Charon and the Small Moons of Pluto
Explanation:
What do the moons of
Pluto look like?
Before a decade ago, only the largest moon
Charon was known, but never imaged.
As the robotic
New Horizons spacecraft was prepared and launched,
other moons were identified on
Hubble images but remained only
specks of light.
Finally, this past summer, New Horizons swept right
past Pluto, photographed
Pluto and
Charon in detail, and took the best images of
Styx,
Nix,
Kerberos, and
Hydra that it could.
The
featured image
composite shows the results --
each moon is seen to have a distinct shape, while underlying complexity is only hinted.
Even though not satisfyingly resolved,
these images are likely to be the best available to humanity for some time.
This is because the moons are too small and distant for contemporary Earth-based
telescopes to resolve, and no new
missions to the Pluto
system are planned.
Gallery:
October's Venus, Jupiter,
& Mars Conjunction
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
