New Horizons’ first photos of Pluto’s smallest moons [View all]

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New Horizons’ first photos of Pluto’s smallest moons
May 14, 2015
by Eleanor Imster in » Science Wire, Space

For the first time, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has photographed Kerberos and Styx – the smallest and faintest of Pluto’s five known moons. New Horizons has been journeying toward Pluto since 2006 and will sweep closest to Pluto on July 14, 2015.

It was way back in July 2013 that New Horizons first saw Pluto’s large moon Charon. It began to see Pluto’s smaller moons Hydra and Nix in July 2014 and January 2015, respectively. New Horizons is now within sight of all the known members of the Pluto system. Will new moons be found? Stay tuned.

Latest New Horizons images of Pluto
http://earthsky.org/space/latest-new-horizons-images-of-pluto-and-charon

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Drawing ever-closer to Pluto, New Horizons will begin its first search for new moons or rings in mid-May. Rings, in particular, might threaten the spacecraft on its passage through the Pluto system. The images of faint Styx and Kerberos shown here are allowing the search team to refine the techniques they will use to analyze those data, which will push the sensitivity limits even deeper.

Kerberos and Styx were discovered in 2011 and 2012, respectively, by New Horizons team members using the Hubble Space Telescope. Styx, circling Pluto every 20 days between the orbits of Charon and Nix, is likely just four to 13 miles (approximately seven to 21 kilometers) in diameter, and Kerberos, orbiting between Nix and Hydra with a 32-day period, is just six to 20 miles (approximately 10 to 30 kilometers) in diameter. Each is 20 to 30 times fainter than Nix and Hydra.

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