Hubble finds fifth moon orbiting Pluto (unlabelled)

Esahubble_heic1212b_1024

esahubble_heic1212b July 11th, 2012

Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)

This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto, including a newly discovered moon, designated S/2012 (134340) 1, or P5, as photographed by Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 on 7 July 2012. Other observations that collectively show the moons orbital motion were taken on 26, 27 and 29 June and on July 9. The moon is estimated to be 10 to 25 kilometres across. It is in a 95 000 kilometre diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be aligned in the same plane as the other satellites in the system. The darker stripe in the centre of the image is because the picture is constructed from a long exposure designed to capture the comparatively faint satellites of Nix, Hydra, P4 and S/2012 (134340) 1, and a shorter exposure to capture Pluto and Charon, which are much brighter.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1212b/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Charon Hydra Nix P4 Pluto S/2012 (134340) 1
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Dwarf planet

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (U) 350.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Esahubble_heic1212b_1280
×
ID
heic1212b
Subject Category
A.2.1  
Subject Name
Charon, Hydra, Nix, P4, Pluto, S/2012 (134340) 1
Credits
NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)
Release Date
2012-07-11T18:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1212b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue
Band
Ultraviolet
Bandpass
U
Central Wavelength
350
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic1212b
Metadata Date
2012-07-11T09:18:48-04:00
Metadata Version
1.0
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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