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Pluto's four small circumbinary moons orbit Pluto at two to four times the distance of Charon, ranging from Styx at 42,700 kilometres to Hydra at 64,800 kilometres from the barycenter of the system. They have nearly circular prograde orbits in the same orbital plane as Charon. All are much smaller than Charon.
These tholins were produced from methane, nitrogen, and related gases which may have been released by cryovolcanic eruptions on the moon, [22] [23] or may have been transferred over 19,000 km (12,000 mi) from the atmosphere of Pluto to the orbiting moon. [24] The New Horizons spacecraft is the only probe that has visited the Pluto system. It ...
Nix is the third moon of Pluto by distance, orbiting between the moons Styx and Kerberos. [11] Nix was imaged along with Pluto and its other moons by the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by the Pluto system in July 2015. [12] Images from the New Horizons spacecraft reveal a large reddish area on Nix that is likely an impact crater. [13]
On February 12, 2015, NASA released new images of Pluto (taken from January 25 to 31) from the approaching probe. [132] [133] New Horizons was more than 203 million km (126 million mi) away from Pluto when it began taking the photos, which showed Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. The exposure time was too short to see Pluto's smaller, much ...
By distance, Hydra is the fifth and outermost moon of Pluto, orbiting beyond Pluto's fourth moon Kerberos. [11] Hydra has a highly reflective surface caused by the presence of water ice, similar to other Plutonian moons. [15] Hydra's reflectivity is intermediate, in between those of Pluto and Charon. [16] The New Horizons spacecraft imaged ...
NASA's New Horizons probe has returned the first color images of Pluto. The small blurry dots in the newly-released photo are Pluto and Charon, the largest of Pluto's moons. New Horizons captured ...
Styx (moon) Styx is a small natural satellite of Pluto whose discovery was announced on 11 July 2012. It was discovered by use of the Hubble Space Telescope, and is the smallest of the five known moons of Pluto. It was imaged along with Pluto and Pluto's other moons by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015, albeit poorly with only a single ...
Kerberos is a small natural satellite of Pluto, about 19 km (12 mi) in its longest dimension. Kerberos is also the second-smallest moon of Pluto, after Styx. It was the fourth moon of Pluto to be discovered and its existence was announced on 20 July 2011. [1] It was imaged, along with Pluto and its four other moons, by the New Horizons ...