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Post Info TOPIC: S/2012 (134340) 1


L

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S/2012 (134340) 1
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The discoverers of Pluto's two tiniest moons are inviting the public to help select names for the new moons. 
By tradition, the moons of Pluto have names associated with Hades and the underworld.
 
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Hubble Discovers a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

hs-2012-32-a-small_web.jpg

A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The moon is estimated to be irregular in shape and 6 to 15 miles across. It is in a 58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be co-planar with the other satellites in the system. Provisionally designated S/2012 (134340) 1, the latest moon was detected in nine separate sets of images taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on June 26, 27, and 29, 2012 and July 7 and 9, 2012. This discovery increases the number of known moons orbiting Pluto to five.
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Pluto's Moons: Five and Counting

Although for now its official designation is S/2012 (134340) 1 - "134340" being the minor-planet number assigned to Pluto - the new find has been nicknamed "P5". (Easier to remember, don't you agree?) Its existence was announced last night by the IAU's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.
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The satellite's mean magnitude is V = 27.0 ±0.3, making it 4 percent as bright as Pluto II (Nix) and half as bright as S/2011 (134340) 1. The diameter depends on the assumed geometric albedo: 10 km if p_v = 0.35, or 25 km if p_v = 0.04. The motion is consistent with a body travelling on a near-circular orbit coplanar with the other satellites. The inferred mean motion is 17.8 ±0.1 degrees per day (P = 20.2 ±0.1 days), and the projected radial distance from Pluto is 42000 ±2000 km, placing P5 interior to Pluto II (Nix) and close to the 1:3 mean motion resonance with Pluto I (Charon).
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Ed ~ it seems the New Horizons team commissioned a further study of Pluto with the HST to avoid any potential damage to the spacecraft passing near Pluto. 



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A 5th Plutonian moon was discovered by the Hubble space telescope in 2012.

The moon is about 10 - 25 km in size.

 

NEW SATELLITE OF (134340) PLUTO: S/2012 (134340) 1

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Just announced: Pluto has come company-- We've discovered a 5th moon using the Hubble Space Telescope

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