Now wait one minute... since when has Pluto had three moons?
I know I don't read everything that comes over the wire, but when did that little bit of data get past me?
"Using new Hubble Space Telescope observations, a research team led by Dr. Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Dr. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute has found that Pluto's three moons are essentially the same color -- boosting the theory that the Pluto system formed in a single, giant collision.
"...the team determined that Pluto's two "new" satellites, discovered in May 2005 and provisionally called S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, have identical colors to one another and are essentially the same, neutral color as Charon, Pluto's large moon discovered in 1978...
"The new observations were obtained March 2 with the high-resolution channel of the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The team determined the bodies' colors by comparing the brightness of Pluto and each moon in images taken through a blue filter with those taken through a green/red filter... The new results further strengthen the hypothesis that Pluto and its satellites formed after a collision between two Pluto-sized objects nearly 4.6 billion years ago...
"The Hubble observations were made in support of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. New Horizons launched on Jan. 19, 2006, and will fly through the Pluto system in July 2015, providing the first close-up look at the ninth planet and its moons."
"Using new Hubble Space Telescope observations, a research team led by Dr. Hal Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Dr. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute has found that Pluto's three moons are essentially the same color -- boosting the theory that the Pluto system formed in a single, giant collision.
"...the team determined that Pluto's two "new" satellites, discovered in May 2005 and provisionally called S/2005 P 1 and S/2005 P 2, have identical colors to one another and are essentially the same, neutral color as Charon, Pluto's large moon discovered in 1978...
"The new observations were obtained March 2 with the high-resolution channel of the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The team determined the bodies' colors by comparing the brightness of Pluto and each moon in images taken through a blue filter with those taken through a green/red filter... The new results further strengthen the hypothesis that Pluto and its satellites formed after a collision between two Pluto-sized objects nearly 4.6 billion years ago...
"The Hubble observations were made in support of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. New Horizons launched on Jan. 19, 2006, and will fly through the Pluto system in July 2015, providing the first close-up look at the ninth planet and its moons."
Now wait one minute... since when has Pluto had three moons?
mr damon, 00:58
1 Comments:
Well, since that big collision for about 4.6 billion years ago...
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