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International Occultation Timing Association * EuropeanSection * |
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Possible two new moons of Pluto discovered !
As reported by the New Horizons Project as well as by the Washington Post and other news media, two new moons of Pluto have been discovered. Pluto has therefore three moons, the well known satellite Charon and the two new ones. The discovery has still to be confirmed by the Astronomical Union.
As reported, the New Horizons Team in their search for faint objects near Pluto took a series of exposures using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). On images from the 15th and 18th of May 2005 they found the two faint objects near Pluto. They are preliminary named S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2 and are orbiting Pluto in about 64000 km and 48000 km distance. The larger one may have a diameter around 160km and the other is slightly smaller. The two objects are about 5000 times fainter than Pluto.
Photographs made in the year 2002 confirmed the two objects.
Commentary by IOTA-ES:
This discovery shows the necessity for occultation observations even in situations, where only a near miss is expected. In many cases this may the only chance to discovery similar objects. This is of even more important for Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) ! This discovery should open up the discussion of a new research program at IOTA aimed at the search for such objects.
More information about the new discovery you can find at:
Hubble Space Telescope / New Horizons
Washigton Post
Back to IOTA-ES home page
As reported by the New Horizons Project as well as by the Washington Post and other news media, two new moons of Pluto have been discovered. Pluto has therefore three moons, the well known satellite Charon and the two new ones. The discovery has still to be confirmed by the Astronomical Union.
As reported, the New Horizons Team in their search for faint objects near Pluto took a series of exposures using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). On images from the 15th and 18th of May 2005 they found the two faint objects near Pluto. They are preliminary named S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2 and are orbiting Pluto in about 64000 km and 48000 km distance. The larger one may have a diameter around 160km and the other is slightly smaller. The two objects are about 5000 times fainter than Pluto.
Photographs made in the year 2002 confirmed the two objects.
Commentary by IOTA-ES:
This discovery shows the necessity for occultation observations even in situations, where only a near miss is expected. In many cases this may the only chance to discovery similar objects. This is of even more important for Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) ! This discovery should open up the discussion of a new research program at IOTA aimed at the search for such objects.
More information about the new discovery you can find at:
Hubble Space Telescope / New Horizons
Washigton Post
Back to IOTA-ES home page