Discovery: P4, Another Moon Around Pluto
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 - 12:50
in Astronomy & Space
Though 2 percent of astronomers declared Pluto was no longer a planet, for not being a planet, it sure has a lot of moons. Four so far.The Hubble Space Telescope discovered this fourth moon, cleverly designated P4, and astronomers say this newest, smallest one has an estimated diameter of 8 to 21 miles. By comparison, Charon, Pluto's largest moon, is 648 miles (1,043 km) across, and the other moons, Nix and Hydra, are in the range of 20 to 70 miles in diameter (32 to 113 km).Distance: 3 billion miles.read more