Support NeoGAF

[Disorientator]

Exactly 85 years after Clyde Tombaugh's historic discovery of Pluto, the NASA spacecraft set to encounter the icy dwarf planet this summer is providing its first views of the small moons orbiting Pluto.

Assembled into a seven-frame movie, the new images provide the spacecraft's first extended look at Hydra (identified by a yellow diamond ) and its first-ever view of Nix (orange diamond). Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Southwest Research Institute

"It's thrilling to watch the details of the Pluto system emerge as we close the distance to the spacecraft's July 14 encounter," says New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also from Southwest Research Institute. "This first good view of Nix and Hydra marks another major milestone, and a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of Pluto's discovery."

These are the first of a series of long-exposure images that will continue through early March, with the purpose of refining the team's knowledge of the moons' orbits. Each frame is a combination of five 10-second images, taken with New Horizons' Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) using a special mode that combines pixels to increase sensitivity at the expense of resolution. At left, Nix and Hydra are just visible against the glare of Pluto and its large moon Charon, and the dense field of background stars. The bright and dark streak extending to the right of Pluto is an artifact of the camera electronics, resulting from the overexposure of Pluto and Charon. As can be seen in the movie, the spacecraft and camera were rotated in some of the images to change the direction of this streak, in order to prevent it from obscuring the two moons.

Nix and Hydra were discovered by New Horizons team members in Hubble Space Telescope images taken in 2005. Hydra, Pluto's outermost known moon, orbits Pluto every 38 days at a distance of approximately 40,200 miles (64,700 km), while Nix orbits every 25 days at a distance of 30,260 miles (48,700 km). Each moon is probably between 25-95 miles (approximately 40- 150 kilometers) in diameter, but scientists won't know their sizes more precisely until New Horizons obtains close-up pictures of both of them in July. Pluto's two other small moons, Styx and Kerberos, are still smaller and too faint to be seen by New Horizons at its current range to Pluto; they will become visible in the months to come.

source

Getting closer and closer guys.

Fascinating stuff!!

 

[I Stalk Alone]

It's a planet again?

 

[Dennis]

It has moons of its own, it is a planet say I.

 

[Log4Girlz]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32724092

Styx and Kerberos in sight

 

[Lovely Salsa]

What happens if we discover cities and a civilization on pluto? Did we think this through?

 

[Log4Girlz]

What happens if we discover cities and a civilization on pluto? Did we think this through?

we'll all need to escape the solar system

 

[skybald]

It has moons of its own, it is a planet say I.

Certainly not a good definition for a planet, as there are asteroids with 'moons'