Pluto’s Moon May Have Company

Possible New Moons Orbiting Pluto

These Hubble Space Telescope images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveal Pluto, its large moon Charon, and the planet's two new candidate satellites. Between May 15 and May 18, 2005, Charon, and the putative moons, provisionally designated P1 and P2, all appear to...

The Pluto System - May 15, 2005

The Pluto System - May 18, 2005

An Artist's View of the Pluto System

This illustration shows the Pluto system from the surface of one of the candidate moons. The other members of the Pluto system are just above the putative moon's surface. Pluto is the large disk at center, right. Charon, the system's only confirmed moon, is the smaller disk to...

Hubble Views the Pluto System

These Hubble Space Telescope images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, reveal Pluto, its large moon Charon, and the planet's two new putative satellites. In the short-exposure image [left], taken June 11, 2002, the candidate moons cannot be seen. They do, however, appear...

The Pluto system on June 14, 2002

A careful search of Hubble images taken with the ACS/HRC on June 14th, 2002, reveals two objects that are consistent with the expected locations of the newly-discovered satellites. One image (top) was taken in yellow light (555 nm) and the other (bottom) was taken in blue light...

Orbits of 4 Bodies in Pluto System about Barycenter as Seen from Earth

Although a full orbital solution for the satellites cannot be determined from only two Hubble measurements, it turns that their paths closely follow that expected for objects orbiting the Pluto system's barycenter in a perfect circle in the same plane as Charon's orbit. In this...