Discovery of two new satellites of Pluto

H. A. Weaver (), S. A. Stern, M. J. Mutchler, A. J. Steffl, M. W. Buie, W. J. Merline, J. R. Spencer, E. F. Young and L. A. Young
Additional contact information
H. A. Weaver: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
S. A. Stern: Southwest Research Institute
M. J. Mutchler: Space Telescope Science Institute
A. J. Steffl: Southwest Research Institute
M. W. Buie: Lowell Observatory
W. J. Merline: Southwest Research Institute
J. R. Spencer: Southwest Research Institute
E. F. Young: Southwest Research Institute
L. A. Young: Southwest Research Institute

Nature, 2006, vol. 439, issue 7079, 943-945

Abstract: Four's Company In May 2005 Pluto was well placed for observation and the Hubble Space Telescope's survey camera was trained in its direction. The result was the discovery of two previously unknown satellites, called S/2005 P 1 and P 2 for now, making Pluto the first Kuiper belt object known to have multiple satellites. Two papers this week cover this milestone in detail. Weaver et al. describe the discovery process, and derive preliminary orbits and size estimates for both satellites. Stern et al. present work on the potential origin of the new satellites in the Charon-forming impact, on the likelihood of a ring system at Pluto, and the likelihood that there are many more multiple satellite systems in the Kuiper belt. On the cover, images of the Pluto-Charon system on 15 May (top) and 3 days later show the newly discovered moons on the move. Charon moves from one side of Pluto to the other between the two frames.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04547 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:439:y:2006:i:7079:d:10.1038_nature04547

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04547

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().