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The innermost and largest moon, Charon, was discovered by James Christy on 22 June 1978, nearly half a century after Pluto was discovered. This led to a substantial revision in estimates of Pluto's size, which had previously assumed that the observed mass and reflected light of the system were all attributable to Pluto alone.
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 ...
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]
By Will Dunham. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Observations by the James Webb Space Telescope are giving scientists a fuller understanding about the composition and evolution of Pluto's moon Charon, the ...
Researchers used observations from the Webb Telescope to identify carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the surface of Charon, Pluto's largest moon.
Nix is a natural satellite of Pluto, with a diameter of 49.8 km (30.9 mi) across its longest dimension. [3] It was discovered along with Pluto's outermost moon Hydra on 15 May 2005 by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, [1] and was named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night. [10]
Hydra orbits the Pluto-Charon barycenter at a distance of 64,738 km (40,226 mi). [10] Hydra is the outermost moon of Pluto, orbiting beyond Kerberos. [11] Similarly to all of Pluto's moons, Hydra's orbit is nearly circular and is coplanar to Charon's orbit; all of Pluto's moons have very low orbital inclinations to Pluto's equator. [11]
Data from the New Horizons probe may explain how the red cap atop Pluto’s largest moon formed.