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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto%27s_natural_satellites

Hmm...interesting.

my location is earths second moon

was discovered in 1994

I don't see how Pluto could have enough mass to have two moons, unless they're like, small asteroids or something.

Originally posted by DarkC
I don't see how Pluto could have enough mass to have two moons, unless they're like, small asteroids or something.

It seems that the two moons orbit around Pluto and it's main moon, so the combined mass might be enough.

Ooh, cool!

None of its moons have a diameter bigger than 20km, like a spec compared to any other moon in our solar system.

Originally posted by DarkC
I don't see how Pluto could have enough mass to have two moons, unless they're like, small asteroids or something.

Moons are basically asteroids

Exciting, but not very impressive. There's still people who think Pluto should be classified as a moon itself due to it's size. Then there's the 10th planet... whatever happened to it, no body talks about it these days.

Xena?

Yeah, something like that, some sort of God woman, and they all wear leather.

Planet X?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_X

No, I don't think it's hypothetical. It was out beyond Pluto, people called it the 10th planet, named it after some Norse Goddess I think, debate over whether it was a planet as it wasn't much bigger then our moon (it might even have been smaller)

Here's an artists conception: standing on one of the moons, looking across the way at Pluto, with another of its moons off to the right:

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/7899/000b8c9eacc41367ac2c83414b7ffe.jpg

Here's the official Hubble telescope data:

http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/7010/plutomoonshstf1m15fi.jpg

Explanation: In 1930, tiny, icy world Pluto was discovered orbiting in the distant solar system. In 1978, its relatively large companion Charon was detected by ground-based observations. This year, the Hubble Space Telescope may well have detected two further members of the Pluto system. Provisionally designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, the two potential new moons are seen orbiting in a counterclockwise direction about 44,000 kilometers (27,000 miles) from Pluto in these deep Hubble images recorded only three days apart. The diminutive and faint companions are also apparently detected on Hubble images of Pluto from 2002, but this coming February follow-up observations are planned in an effort to confirm the discovery of the new moons. Compared to Pluto's and Charon's diameters of 2,300 and 1,300 kilometers respectively, these moons are estimated to be between 60 and 200 kilometers across. Well within the Kuiper Belt, an extensive region beyond the orbit of Neptune, the Pluto system could be the first quadruple Kuiper Belt object known.


SOAP BOX SPEECH:

By the way did you that the NASA director, yes, the one appointed by "W", was going to take the Hubble out of commission because this administration thought it wasn't worth the "risk" to fix it! AND this is way AFTER the $$$ had already been appropriated by congress to do the necessary maintenance! Honest to God truth! With all the mistrust in government engendered by dicky cheney and dumbass w, is it any wonder why some people think this was just one little part of a bigger, secret agenda to move towards the militarization of space?



Moreover, you gotta be hip to this administrations double-speak (ala Orwells "1984" in order to correctly interpret what they really mean. This is certainly true in their recent push for the so called "privatization" of space. Also, the whole "manned mission to Mars" project proposed by bush/rove is a ruse to incite disagreement and inflame destructive debate by those who would agrue that the ridiculous sum of money necessary for such a hair-brained project cannot be justified. The acrimonious sentiment thus created, along with their continued harping and fear mongering about how the space shuttle is too dangerous and "unsafe for humans", thus shamelessly taking advantage of the recent shuttle disaster, is really a two pronged approach to eventually shut down or marginalize NASA. Of course the real reason is to have the US military move in and take over for the reasons of "national security". These idiots think and act like it's 1965 not 2005. They are dinosaurs from the last century and the sooner they are booted the fk outta here along with the w-puppet and his puppetmeister daddy, the safer and more interesting the world will be! If they get their way believe it - their aim is to keep the people in the dark, literally! Soon after that, not only will we not know what's going on up there, we'll be arrested just for asking!

This is the MOST ANTI-SCIENCE administration in the entire history of the US. THEY MUST GO! YESTERDAY is not soon enough!!!

RANT OVER.




Check out the following each day to see the latest APOD, or Astronomy magazine's Picture Of the Day:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Originally posted by Imperial_Samura
Exciting, but not very impressive. There's still people who think Pluto should be classified as a moon itself due to it's size. Then there's the 10th planet... whatever happened to it, no body talks about it these days.

i think they mistakenly thought that these moons were planets, and just dont want to admit to it.

Originally posted by Curl_Up&Dye
i think they mistakenly thought that these moons were planets, and just dont want to admit to it.

If you weren't so precious - I think that'd make me wanna scream right now! Check out the latest exciting news from the high frontier here: http://science.nasa.gov/

http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/9436/10thplanet8sv.png

lol i was jk'ing....

i know about the 'real' 10th planet. I read it on wikipedia. It was a joke because for forever the rumor was that 'planet x' was after pluto

Oh, sorry. Actually I kinda thought so. I was just playing off it.

Planets are interesting but what is a little disconcerting to me is the fact that our solar system will soon (2012) be crossing the galactic plane, as it does every 33 million years or so. The galactic plane is the most dense part of the galactic disc which means that will be the best time for something to run into us. For this reason I am glad to see NASA increase it's efforts to characterize asteroids and comets and research their exact material make up. This might give us something to go on for coming up with a good deterrence to save our species should some planet killer asteroid cross our path! But so much more should be going on - on a global basis in that regard. Dont'cha think?

I mean, in spite of how great we humans think we are, it COULD happen. No biggie to the rest of the universe either if the human race becomes extinct. Actually no biggie at all really. Life elsewhere will go on and never miss us. The Earth will continue and after we are all dead from years and years of something akin to "nuclear winter", the dust will settle and some other organism will eventually evolve to become the dominant species. Maybe even after millions of years of evolution another self-aware land based creature, maybe very different looking from us will evolve and create new civilizations entirely different from ours. In fact, I would imagine their "anthropologists" and geologists would have very exciting times as they unearthed artifacts from the ancient pre-killer asteroid epoch. Objects we take for granted as simple and unimportant would be on display in museums and presentations would be given telling about the latest theories of humans, their science, religion and philosophy. How they dressed, what their cultures were like, what they might have looked like. I don't know what would be left millions of years from now, but the deeper they would dig, the more and more they would find. Still, it would probably be a real riot to fast forward into their society just to see how many things they got dead wrong - you know, to the point of being ridiculously funny!