HOUSTON — Distant and tiny Pluto has been hiding something from Earth: another moon. NASA announced Wednesday that the Hubble Space Telescope has found a fourth moon circling Pluto, which had been demoted from full planet to dwarf planet. Astronomers had been looking to see if Pluto had a ring, but instead they found another object circling the dwarf planet that is 3 billion miles from Earth. But it is a mini-moon. It is only eight to 21 miles wide. Pluto’s biggest moon, Charon (SHARE-on), is 80 times bigger. The other two moons are Nix and Hydra. Until astronomers decide a name, this moon is called P4. ___ Online: Array
Posted by
on July 20, 2011. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Posted by
on July 20, 2011. Filed under